Trust Forged in Past Battles Leads Warriors into Finals, and Maybe Past LeBron

OAKLAND — In the end, it wasn’t about one team’s stars being better. Or its coach being smarter. Or its bench being deeper. Or even its home-court advantage being greater. Add up all the respective strengths and weaknesses of the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s physical components and it remains debatable who has the more robust plus column.

No, the Warriors are going back to the NBA Finals because of the connection between all those components, an airtight bond forged by the fiery cauldron endured a year ago at this time. They didn’t complete their climb out of a 3-1 deficit by winning Game 7, 96-88, Monday night at Oracle Arena because they played their best. Far from it. They won because of one simple concept they have a slightly deeper supply of than OKC:

Trust.

The invisible web between coach Steve Kerr, his nucleus of stars—Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green—a bench brigade usually led by Andre Iguodala and an arena full of exuberant fans masquerading as Minions proved to be more indivisible than that of the Thunder.

Considering how new some of the pieces the Thunder have are, it’s a credit to them that they’ve developed their own healthy bond in such a short time. It’s little consolation now, no doubt, but the trust Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook showed in Steven Adams, playing in only his second postseason and first as a starter, was a big reason the Thunder pushed the Warriors to the limit. The willingness of rookie NBA coach Billy Donovan to change strategy from game to game and series to series reflected an immense trust not only in his team’s ability to adjust on the fly but in his plan.

Ultimately, though, Donovan didn’t trust his bench enough to go beyond Dion Waiters and Enes Kanter in Game 7. He also didn’t trust his third-best player, Adams, to play him more than 26 minutes with everything on the line. And Andre Roberson didn’t trust his three-point shooting enough after an 0-of-4 start to take an open fifth attempt Monday night. On such small variances are Game 7s decided.

Green, meanwhile, trusted his long-distance stroke after four misses to start, burying his fifth to give the Warriors their first double-digit lead in the fourth quarter. Curry and Thompson trusted each other to alternately provide points from deep all night long. Why? Because they did so successfully a year ago to win it all, an element no other team in the league can boast right now.

Kerr even trusted Anderson Varejao and Leandro Barbosa to protect a six-point lead for a two-minute stretch at the end of the third quarter, a crucial breather with Curry, Green, Iguodala and Thompson on …

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