Curry's Three-Point Bomb Beats OKC

On Saturday, February 27, 2016, the defending champion Golden State Warriors, who currently have the best record throughout all the NBA, and also the best record ever through 58 games in NBA history, traveled to the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to take on one of the best duos in the NBA in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder, who currently have the third best record all throughout the entire league. The Warriors, who could clinch a playoff berth with a difficult hard-fought win, were coming into the game on a four-game winning streak after taking down the Orlando Magic on the road, and they were chasing history as they have an actual chance at beating the record for total wins in an 82 game season. All they need is 73 wins and they are more than halfway there needing, now, only 20 more wins out of their 24 remaining games. The Thunder, on the other hand, came into the game following a loss at New Orleans against the Pelicans, and really wanted a win over one of their biggest conference rivals this year.
The game started out perfectly for the home team Oklahoma City Thunder, as pretty much everything that could possibly go their way was, in fact, going their way. Steven Adams won the tip off against Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut and Serge Ibaka gained possession of the ball. Within 15 seconds, Russell Westbrook, the point guard for Oklahoma City, was able to drive hard past defending NBA MVP Stephen Curry for a nice layup allowing all the fans in OKC to take a seat. In Chesapeake Energy Arena, the fans have a tradition that they must remain standing until the Thunder score a basket, regardless of how long that might take. After Westbrook's layup, Draymond Green of the Warriors missed a shot and Kevin Durant rebounded the ball, and after a nice assist from his teammate, Steven Adams, Durant nailed a 25-foot three point jumper to increase the Thunder's lead to five points. Once again, the Warriors were unable to respond as one half of the Splash Brothers Klay Thompson was unable to respond to Durant's three with a 25-foot jumper of his own. The Thunder rebounded the ball and this time, Durant pump-faked on a three, drove the ball down the lane, and after drawing all the defenders to the paint surrounding him, he kicked the ball out to Andre Roberson for another Thunder three causing all the fans in Chesapeake Energy Arena to explode in a ball of completely and utterly ecstatic excitement. The Warriors were able to bounce back a little after a short 5-0 run of their own capped by Steph Curry's first of twelve threes of the night to cut the Thunder's lead down to a score of 8-5. Throughout the rest of the quarter the teams battled back-and-forth, but the Thunder showed dominance through Kevin Durant to end the quarter with a 30-20 lead against the struggling Warriors who were unable to score a lot without Stephen Curry.
The second quarter went a little better for the Warriors as the Thunder did not blow them out. However, the Thunder did still manage to outscore them in the quarter by 1 27-26 to take a 57-46 lead going into the halftime break.
In the third quarter, the Warriors had a better time, outscoring the Thunder by five points, but they did get quite a scare midway through the quarter. During a play, Stephen Curry rolled his ankle, and Westbrook accidentally stepped on it and Curry was unable to get up. As the Thunder rebounded the ball and took it to the other end, Curry screamed at his teammates to commit a foul so he could sub out of the game and get his ankle re-taped. Luckily for the Warriors, Curry was able to come back in and play at full form later in the game.
In the final, quarter, the Thunder played horribly. They were unable to stop Curry and his three point bombs, and without Durant, they were unable to score. They also did not think very well. With 11 seconds left, the Thunder were up by 2 points and had possession of the ball. They got the ball into Durant who got trapped, and they should have called timeout. However, Durant made an awful mistake of trying to throw the ball to waste time. Iguodala stole the ball and was fouled with no time left on the clock. He made both free throws and sent the game into overtime.
In overtime, Durant fouled out right away and the Thunder no longer had a scoring threat. Curry made a 37-foot three pointer with practically no time left on the clock sealing the win for the Warriors 121-118 in a heartbreaking loss for the Thunder.