Warriors Classics: 2015 Western Conference Game 5

“The phrase you thought you would not hear in your lifetime: the Golden State Warriors are going to the NBA Finals.”

Warriors radio broadcaster Tim Roye voiced those words on Wednesday, May 27, 2015, as the Dubs beat the Rockets 104-90 to win the Western Conference Finals in five games, stamping the Dubs’ first ticket to the NBA Finals since the 1975 Championship season.

It was a big win for the team, but not one that came easily. Going against a Houston squad led by James Harden, Dwight Howard, and Trevor Ariza meant the Warriors would need a team effort to pull out a victory.

That is exactly what happened that night.

Both teams came out of the gate struggling: the Dubs shot 22 percent from the floor with six turnovers, while the Rockets didn’t fare much better at 30 percent and seven turnovers. But the slump would not last long for the Warriors.

The second quarter opened with Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, and Andre Iguodala hitting five of the Dubs’ first seven shots to go on a 13-2 run in the first three-and-a-half minutes to reclaim a 30-24 lead. That was a lead the Warriors didn’t relinquish to the Rockets for the duration of the game.

Houston did not let the game get out of hand though as they kept the deficit in the single digits for a majority of the second and third quarters, thereby keeping the pressure on the Dubs. But the teamwork demonstrated in the second quarter continued at the opening of the fourth when the Warriors’ supporting cast, rather than their headliners, put the game away. Festus Ezeli, Andre Iguodala and Harrison Barnes combined to score the Warriors’ first 21 points of the fourth frame. Their combined effort sent the Dubs ahead by as much as 15 points early in the fourth to guarantee the victory in Oakland in front of Dub Nation.

The Dubs’ win in the 2015 Western Conference Finals marked a turning point for the franchise as it was the first of five consecutive seasons the team would take the Western Conference crown and head to the NBA Finals. The squad would go on to win the title that season, and twice more in 2017 and 2018 in that run.