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Love or hate the Warriors, and there is no real reason for the latter, they make watching basketball a joy. They make it fun. The positivity with which they play is remarkable. The confidence they have, the assumption, the gall, that impossible shots will dust the nets and move them forward is exhilarating.

Thing is, they don't just play that way when they're comfortably ahead or when they're desperately behind. They flow the ball and fire away when the outcome is on the line, as it was on Monday, when they advanced from the Western Conference finals to the NBA championship series against the Cavs.

That shot Steph Curry made — well, take your pick — with 26 seconds left in Game 7 from 27 feet is just part of the norm for this team. Set aside, that attempt would have registered as something sensational … except for the fact that it was just one of seven deep balls from Steph that were equally notable. The way Curry shoots, a casual kind of heave, from the distance he shoots, has never been seen in the NBA. Couple it with Klay Thompson's range, and the combo-pack is unprecedented.

They are changing the game. They would change the game if teams could find guys who have the skill and the nerve and the coach's nod to take shots like that, making enough of them to punish and beat opponents. Math isn't a strong suit here, but last time anybody checked, three points are more than two. So, when the Warriors trailed on Monday by as many as 13 points, and the Thunder continued to lead in the second half, there was this explosion of 3s — five in three minutes, three by Curry — that gave Golden State a lead it never relinquished.

As many times as the Warriors had done that previously, through their 73 regular-season wins, for them to dial in and do it again, after being knocked around by the Oklahoma City Thunder, featuring two of the league's best five players, for most of this series, was out of the ordinary.

It was worth watching, even for pained Jazz fans still hurting from the team's failure to make the playoffs. For a lot of observers of sports, the reason they got hooked on the games is they craved seeing a level of competition they couldn't see anywhere else. That's what the Warriors provide.

After winning the title last season, and after that historic regular-season performance, maybe everyone just expected Golden State to roll through the playoffs this time around. But the effort conjured by the Thunder, first in beating the Spurs, and then going up 3-1 against the defending champs, and looking for all the world as though Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were on their way to a matchup with the Cavs in the Finals, did nothing but properly stir the Warriors' greatness.

Stir it, it did.

Golden State became the 10th team in NBA history to come back from that kind of playoff-series deficit. And the way they accomplished it, in their nitro-fueled offensive burn against a tough Thunder defense, with Curry and Thompson hitting 13 of 23 3-pointers in Game 7, was something you had to see. There were other important aspects, too. In that third quarter, the Warriors limited OKC to 12 points, while they churned out 29. After getting killed on the boards early in the game, they rebounded, literally and figuratively, ultimately calling that particular slice of work a draw.

But the thing not to miss, the compelling component to what's going on here, is the deep shooting in pressure situations. Physiologists say the body responds differently when the heat gets turned up, that messages from the adrenal glands cascade through the body and sometimes mess up fine skills that otherwise would function as expected. Not for the Warriors.

On Monday, with postseason survival on the line, the Warriors made 46 percent of their bombs, taking 37 of them.

Now, Golden State faces LeBron's Cavs in the Finals, a team that has been popping and hitting all kinds of 3-pointers in its playoff run, also making difficult shots look easy.

Do yourself a favor, then: If you love or, for whatever reason, hate the Warriors or the Cavs, go out of your way to watch this stuff. It is extraordinary. It's both the reason you became a sports fan to begin with and it is something you haven't seen before, something you may not see a whole lot more of in the years ahead … unless the Warriors really do change the game for good.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson. —

NBA Finals

All games televised on Ch. 4

Thursday • at Golden State, 7 p.m.

Sunday • at Golden State, 6 p.m.

June 8 • at Cleveland, 7 p.m.

June 10 • at Cleveland, 7 p.m.

x-June 13 • at Golden State, 7 p.m.

x-June 16 • at Cleveland, 7 p.m.

x-June 19 • at Golden State, 6 p.m.

x-If necessary

Inside • The Cavaliers' biggest challenge will be containing Curry. > D3