The great thing about the Golden State Warriors team is not only their talent, but also their champion’s mentality, which was build after 5 consecutive appearances on the NBA finals.
In the second game of the Finals against the Toronto Raptors, Steve Kerr’s team showed a great state of mind in the crucial moments of the game.
First of all, that was one of the few times in a game that the “Dubs” were considered the outsider in that particular moment.
Specifically, Durant was out, Cousins was out of shape after his 45-days of absence, Iguodala, despite being injured during the previous game, he played in Game 2 scoring the decisive shot of the game.
Also, Kevon Looney got out of the game after taking a hit on the chest and Klay Thompson, who was having a great performance for most of the time in last night’s game, was also injured in the 4th quarter.
Despite the above, the Warriors came up victorious playing with great composure. They shoot 46% on field goal percentage, they had 34 assists on 38 shots with 13 of them coming from the three point line.
In addition, the two leaders of the “Dubs”, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, had a great impact on both sides of the floor.
Curry scored six consecutive points to cap off a very crucial 9-2 run in the last minute of the first half and finished the game with 23 pts, on an incredible +12 plus/minus on the game. Impressively, he did that, while being sick and dehydrated.
On the other hand, Green played an important role coming off the game with almost a triple-double having 17 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists, while playing aggressively on defense keeping Siakam under control this time(12 pts. on 5-18 shooting).
Furthermore, the Warriors tightened up their defense and kept the Toronto Raptors without a field goal for about 4 minutes in the fourth quarter.
Finally, the Raptors scored only 9 points in the last five minutes of the game and they let Andre Iguodala finish them off being completely open on the three point line, in the final seconds.
The Canadians had a great chance to lead the Final’s series 2-0, but they couldn’t capitalize that opportunity. They found the “Dubs” in the worst place possible, but they came up short at the end.
The win of the Warriors in the Game 2 of the Finals is there to remind us that a team needs something more than just talent to compete on the “big stage” and that’s mental toughness.
