Andre Iguodala Buries Oklahoma City Thunder With Game Winner For Golden State Warriors

January 23, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) tries to create room to shoot next to Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson (11) in the fourth quarter at ORACLE Arena. The Warriors defeated the Thunder 104-99. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Game of the year!

Tonight, the Golden State Warriors defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in one of the most fantastically odd games of the year. The final score of tonight’s game was 116-115 in an absolute nail-biter and a wild one, in which the Warirors claimed the victory thanks to a last-second fading shot by Andre Iguodala, who finished with 14 points and 9 assists.

The Warriors and the Thunder both got hot early and matched with each other going head-to-head. After a long first quarter which saw a lot of 3-point shots go in for the Warriors, the score was neck-a-neck at 33-32 with OKC on top. For a good chunk of the game, entering into the second quarter, the Warriors had a dismal four rebounds. Think about that for a second.

Luckily, this didn’t hurt them too much, because the backcourt, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were lighting it up from the outside, which is what they always do. Thompson finished with 27, and Curry had 22. At halftime, the Thunder and the Warriors found themselves knotted up at 62 apiece.

After a very physical third quarter, the Warriors began to get some more rebounds and pull ahead offensively. For the sake of the Warriors, I wish that I could say they went on from this point. Unfortunately, however, that didn’t happen. They eventually extended their lead to a whopping 14 at 100-86 with about nine minutes remaining in the fourth, but the Thunder came back and tied the game. Kevin Durant had five fouls early in the fourth, which forced him to the bench.

This game literally came down to the wire.

Up by just two, the Warriors were on the defensive end. Reggie Jackson was stuck with nowhere to go, so he dumped the ball off to Russell Westbrook, who proceeded to score 3 of his 31 points, hitting the biggest shot of the night, so far. He drilled a 3-point shot with 2.3 seconds left on the clock to put his team up by two.

On the other end, however, Iguodala received the inbounds pass, turned, and fired. And suddenly, the crowd went wild. He put a dagger in the Thunder’s hearts and in a spectacular performance, led the Warriors to victory.

The three stars of the night are Klay Thompson (27 points, great defensive plays, five rebounds, three blocks), Curry (22 points, nine assists, onr steal), and Iguodala (game-winning jump shot).