Steph credits GP2’s ‘special’ dunk for energizing Warriors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Warriors’ upset win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night at Chase Center was nothing short of a true team win.
Before Golden State capped off its eventual 116-109 victory over the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed, it trailed by as many as 14 points in the first quarter before storming back, eventually tying the game in the third quarter and taking the lead in the fourth quarter before capping off the monster win at home.
The energy from the Chase Center crowd was high throughout the entire second half, and peaked when Warriors guard Gary Payton II threw down a vicious poster dunk on Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein to extend Golden State’s lead to 114-105 with 1:03 remaining in the game.
The electrifying moment, while just one basket in a series of big plays down the stretch, brought the Warriors bench to its feet and provided a big boost that Payton’s teammates fed off of.
“Over the course of the last four years, there have been moments like that,” Steph Curry said of Payton’s dunk postgame. “He was definitely excited because he said he hadn’t had one in a while. It doesn’t matter at what point in the game it happens, it’s always a big boost energy-wise, [the] demeanor for the whole team, to have something to celebrate.
“And for him, to show his athleticism. But to finish the game like that was special, it’s like you just want to have a stamp on a game like that, and the crowd was going crazy, the whole bench was up. That’s what a team needs when you’ve had a run like we’ve had. Not to over-emphasize one play, but it’s huge. It was a microcosm of our whole night.”
Payton has been notorious for his thunderous dunks over the years, and speaking to reporters after the game, was asked if he had been “hunting” a slam like the one on Hartenstein after not producing many posters this season.
“No, I haven’t been ‘hunting’ it, but I know I haven’t been up there in a while,” Payton explained. “Our coaches be killing us with ‘follow the help,’ so Dennis [Schröder] attacked and made a great pass and I just followed the help and if you follow the help, you get opportunities like that to get going, get your team going. I had one of those, and we were already moving and rolling, so that was just a good exclamation point, just to cap off how we played tonight.”
Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins, also known for his big dunks over the years, was excited to see his teammate get up above the rim and throw one down.
“Oh man, I haven’t seen that in a while,” Wiggins said of Payton’s dunk. “I’m happy he did it. It just shows what G is capable of. He’s a very important piece to this team on both sides of the floor, I just feel like G complements the team so well, so it’s amazing to have him.”
While the electrifying moment helped ice Golden State’s big win over the Thunder, it also provided Payton and his teammates — and Warriors fans — a level of energy that has not been felt much since the beginning of the 2024-25 NBA season.
