Quick as you please, team thrived under Kerr
Many didn’t see this coming until fairly recently, but it’s no surprise to some insiders, including the Stephen Curry fellow. Back in 2009, he tweeted, “Promise to all the Warrior fans ... we will figure this thing out ... if it’s the last thing we do we will figure it out.”
There was a ton of figuring between then and now, but consider Curry’s promise, and Kerr’s dream, uh, almost fulfilled. One more step ahead, a huge one, but no longer a looming Mount Everest of a climb.
Kerr couldn’t have scripted Wednesday’s close- out game any better. Curry was a star, of course, with 26 points, and Thompson bailed out the boys in the second quarter when they were reeling.
But oh, that supporting cast. And oh, how they played as a team.
This is no time to bore you with stats, but chew on this one for a second, then tweet it to your friends who say there’s no team ball in the NBA. The Warriors had 135 assists in the five- game series, to 100 for the Rockets.
Everybody on the Warriors gets a check on their report card under “Works and plays well with others.” Including Kerr, whose ego allowed him to trust in, and lean on, his assistant coaches.
And this might be a good time to dig out a story posted a couple of years ago, when the Warriors were trying to land free- agent center Dwight Howard.
The analyst for Bleacher Report, who was not alone in his belief, wrote, “It’s obvious that the team as it is currently built isn’t going to win anything. ... The Golden State Warriors have to do something, and they know it.”
They didn’t get Howard, but they got their mojo working. They rearranged the parts and turned their going- nowhere machine into a rocket to the moon.
The boys all will take a bow together for this one, like actors at the finish of a boffo play, but you can throw roses onto the stage in any direction and hit a key contributor.
Andrew Bogut didn’t score a point Wednesday, zippo de nada. But his 14 rebounds in 19 minutes came in handy, as did his physicality with the mighty bowlingball- shouldered Howard, the man the Warriors once upon a time couldn’t win without. Houston guard James Harden had a great series, but based on Wednesday night’s results, Bogut gets the award as the series MVB: Most Valuable Beard.
Draymond Green, many will say, had a subpar game, shooting 3- for- 15, but he had 13 rebounds on a night when the Warriors outboarded the Rockets 59- 39. Monstrous.
Speaking of Green, guess who tied Curry for the Warriors’ most assists in the series, with 28? Last name rhymes with mean.
Leandro Barbosa, all season long Kerr has beat this man’s drum, touting his spirit off the court and his zippy speed on it. Seven big points.
Then there’s Festus Ezeli. Twelve points, including eight in the second half, from a man who used to cause thousands of fans to cringe anytime he came near the basketball. Plus nine rebounds and a blocked shot.
Some TV people and other experts might want to label the Warriors a jump- shooting team, and they are, but there’s a lot of hard edge and grit behind the pretty face. And every successful jump shot has about 12 real assists behind it.
There’s some amazing teamwork and smart play and — this one has been mentioned a lot, but it’s true — chemistry. Maybe each of these players would do just as well on different teams, but ... nah.
The Warriors’ closeout performance wasn’t flawless. At times, this was as ragged as a noon- time pickup game at the YMCA. That’s because the Rockets are a really good team that scrapped and clawed its way to the conference finals. Give Houston credit for going down swinging.
The Warriors were better. They played like a dream team. With more dreaming ahead. Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E- mail: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ scottostler