By this point, all the first-round matchups in this season's Playoffs had officially come to an end.
In the second round, aside from the Thunder-Warriors and Celtics-76ers series, which were already underway, there were two more matchups.
The Rockets would face the Spurs, while the Raptors would take on the Cavaliers.
Both were highly anticipated series.
James Harden against Kawhi Leonard.
DeMar DeRozan against LeBron James.
The League's number-one shooting guard against its number-three small forward.
The League's number-two shooting guard against its number-one small forward.
Of course, the Raptors had just finished their series, so they had two days to rest and regroup.
May 3.
Game 3 between the Thunder and Warriors.
For Golden State, this was a game that would decide whether their season lived or died.
If they lost Game 3 and fell behind 0–3, they might as well have been eliminated already.
Because no team in history had ever come back from a 0–3 deficit to win four straight. (That's why the Celtics last year were so damn terrifying. Then the Jays went and laid a giant egg in the end...)
In any case, the Warriors had arrived in Oklahoma united in purpose, determined to win and keep their hopes alive.
Curry was even set to return ahead of schedule for this game.
He had no choice. If he didn't come back now, he might not get to play again this year.
It was do-or-die, a desperate last stand, and Curry was returning early—the king was back.
Their buffs were maxed out.
In those circumstances, beating them was going to be damn hard.
The Thunder ran into trouble right from the start.
Chen had figured that if the Warriors were united in purpose, then the Thunder wanted to win just as badly.
Seriously? We're the ones