© Kelley L Cox | 2018 May 31
Thursday night’s Game 5 of the NBA Finals is much more than a game for the Warriors organization. It marks the last time Golden State will play in storied Oracle Arena. The arena has been home to greats such as Rick Barry, Jason Richardson, and Baron Davis. Now, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green take the court and look to defend Oracle Arena one last time in hopes of sending the NBA Finals back to Toronto for a Game 7.
Marcus Thompson of The Athletic joined Gary & Larry on Thursday afternoon to talk about Game 6, along with sharing his favorite moment ever at Oracle Arena.
“I’m going to go with Game 3 of the 2007 playoff against the Dallas Mavericks,” Thompson said. “Just that feeling of walking down the tunnel, hours before the game, walking into Oracle, it felt like it was the fourth quarter of a championship game. It was so jarring.
“Playoffs hadn’t been in Oakland for 13 years…Just the feeling of how new and fresh it was, and how loud everything was…That was peak Oracle for me. That game will always be supreme for me.”
That 2007 series is of course the historic “We Believe” team which upset the best team in basketball, the Dallas Mavericks, lead by MVP Dirk Nowitzki.
The longtime Warriors writer went on to discuss what needs to happen Thursday night for the Warriors to win Game 6. Detailing where the scoring needs to come from other than the Splash Brothers.
“It’s got to be Cousins. You need to get something from Iguodala. The smart money is probably on Quinn Cook to hit a few threes…It’s definitely going to be what we call a by committee effort. I don’t think one guy is going to go out and get them 20 they just need ten from four dudes.
“But I think it starts with DeMarcus. He’s got to get them a solid 15 points. If he does that, they have a good shot.”
Thompson continued to talk about the difficulty of Thursday’s game and which game could be more difficult for the Warriors to win if this series goes back to Toronto.
“I think it’s tonight…It’s a little bit on the Warriors to do what they do at home. They’ve lost three straight to this team, two in the playoffs. They’ve never lost this much at home in the playoffs.”
Thompson continued, “It’s kind of on them to handle that and play in the manner that upholds the mystique of Oracle… I feel like this is the hard one. You get to Game 7, all that pressure is on Toronto at that point.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Thompson on the Warriors, start from the beginning.