One of my favorite scenes from super hero movie lore comes from the Avengers, when a beaten down Doctor Strange, watching his whole squad getting served by the evil overlord Thanos, looked at fourteen million possible futures and found exactly one where the Avengers won.
One out of fourteen million. The Golden State Warriors just got their one.
They’re locked into the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference. The season has quietly closed every door Golden State had left cracked open. Nothing about this bracket position inspires confidence from the outside. Which quite frankly is exactly how this franchise has always preferred it.
Here’s what the one road to glory looks like: win a road play-in game just to stay alive, then win another road play-in game to earn the right to face the Oklahoma City Thunder as the No. 8 seed. The Thunder just coasted to another 60+ win season. Best record in the Western Conference. They are the defending champions, they are the best team in basketball, and the only path to the second round runs directly through their building.
Strange saw one future where this works, meanwhie the Warriors need to believe they’re living in it.
Because the math has never been the point with this team. The 2007 “We Believe” squad had no business in the playoffs either. They walked in as the No. 8 seed, dismissed and disrespected, and left Dallas in ruins. That Warriors team didn’t beat the odds because the odds suddenly got friendlier. They beat them because Don Nelson drew up something the Mavericks couldn’t solve and the players executed it with a conviction that looked, from the outside, completely irrational. And hell, on the other end of the “odds” spectrum, when the Warriors won the most games in NBA regular season history they were robbed lost the championship. The Dubs are at their best as a sneering underdog because irrational conviction is a Golden State tradition.
And then there’s Steph Curry, 38 years old, two months removed from a knee injury, knocking the rust off in two games back off the injured list. He’s looking spry and motivated. He makes this impossible run possible, the one who bends gravity in fourth quarters and turns road arenas into science experiments. But enough to remind everyone that he exists, that he’s coming, and that no scouting report built on a 42 loss regular season accounts for what hell he can bring when the lights are brightest.
Strange didn’t say the Avengers would win easily. He said they’d win in the end. The difference is everything. All the Warriors need is one chance. Let’s go get it.
