Sights & Sounds From Oracle — Warriors Rewind: Leaving Some Post-Series Celebration In The Tank

ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors had just disposed of [highlights included!] the Houston Rockets in five games in the 2015 Western Conference Finals, but there was no champagne popping and dancing in the locker room.

Sure, the Warriors were happy to advance to the NBA Finals, but with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers looming after sweeping the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals, as Draymond Green said in the locker room to reporters — his iPhone feeding the blaring speakers with rap music — the Dubs would “enjoy the moment, but we ain’t finished yet.”

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Green, the “heartbeat” of the Warriors on both ends, led the charge during the series. As Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group later wrote:

The Warriors averaged 55.3 rebounds per game the last three games of the series. They outrebounded the Rockets by an average of 14 boards per game, including a whopping 15.3 offensive boards.
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Draymond Green totaled 41 rebounds in the last three games of the series, including 11 offensive boards. Dwight Howard totaled 42 rebounds during that stretch. In the last three games, Bogut grabbed 27.9 percent of the rebounds while he was on the floor. By comparison, Howard led the Rockets by grabbing 18.9 percent of the rebounds.

Three Warriors drafted just three years ago — Green, Harrison Barnes, and Festus Ezeli — had in Game 5 combined to score 45 points (24 from Barnes) and 29 rebounds, and owner Joe Lacob said he was proud of them and the Draft wizardry of general manager Bob Myers.

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Even with the trendy new “Finals” cap on, Lacob showed satisfaction, but far from elation.

Meanwhile, Andrew Bogut revealed that he always felt the booing of Lacob at the Chris Mullin ceremony was a “head-scratcher”:

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Over on the other side of the locker room, Andre Iguodala answered questions about Dwight Howard‘s elbow foul into Iguodala’s shoulder, while Green answered a congratulatory phone call from his mom, Mary Babers-Green, telling her, “Thanks a lot, Mary. I’m doing the media. They said wassup.”

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Still, Howard would later get his foul on Iguodala upgraded, resulting in a one-game suspension to start the next season, while Klay Thompson later revealed that Trevor Ariza had told him the knee to Thompson’s head was not intentional.

After Green finished his duties with media, he took some time for a little dance:

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It was far from “all-out”, though.

The Rockets had been humbled and veteran guard Jason Terry gave props to the home team and its crowd. As Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area reported:

Terry said: “We knew it would be tough coming into a place where, what, three teams won here all season? That’s phenomenal. I’ve never seen that in my 16 years of basketball in the NBA. Give them all the credit in the world.”

The Western Conference championship trophy would be left alone for a moment as players got dressed and headed home:

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And Stephen Curry would take a moment before he headed to the showers…

Moment of reflection… MVP @StephenCurry30 with the #WCF trophy pic.twitter.com/bsbsJb7yQF

— NBA TV (@NBATV) May 28, 2015

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…and then took the podium — or rather, Riley Curry did:

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Afterwards back on the floor, ESPN Sportscenter had Green on, Curry came by to congratulate Green, and Barnes looked on from the stands.

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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @poormanscommish)