Monday night's overtime thriller brought home a ticket to the NBA Finals, as the Golden State Warriors once again came back from a 17-point deficit to stun the Portland Trail Blazers 119-117, wrapping up the sweep in four games.

The defending champions had to crawl for this win, playing their starters heavy minutes in hopes the extra minutes would translate into nine days of rest before the start of their last and most important series.

These are 5 Clutch Points from Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals:

Another epic comeback

Monday was the third straight game in which the Warriors were forced to come back from a deficit of 17 points or greater, this time taking it deep into the fourth quarter instead of erasing the deficit in the third, as they did in the previous two games.

Golden State put itself in position to win the game late, yet a Stephen Curry travel would give the ball back to the Blazers with 11 seconds left in regulation, as he shuffled his feet attempting to step back onto the 3-point line.

In hindsight, Curry didn't need the three to break this 111-111 tie, but players have their habits, and this one came back to bite him during a crucial point in the game.

Yet it would be three of the most unlikely suspects that would seal the game for the Warriors in overtime. Kevon Looney came up with three offensive rebounds and broke the tie with a tip shot, while Alfonzo McKinnie, who started for the injured Andre Iguodala, had two offensive boards of his own, as well as a put-back layup to keep Golden State in the lead.

Curry and Klay Thompson could not get their shots to fall in overtime. Instead, it was Draymond Green sealing the game with a wing 3-pointer after Curry was trapped with nowhere to go.

While this was likely the shot Terry Stotts and the Blazers would have wanted the Warriors to take due to the percentages, the look was entirely uncontested — giving Green the room he needed to put the Warriors up four with less than a minute left.

Klay Thompson would seal the deal at the defensive end with a two-point lead after a Green blocked shot, contesting Damian Lillard's fadeaway prayer as the PA system at the Moda Center played Eminem's “Lose Yourself”:

“You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow.”

Oddly enough, the injuries to DeMarcus Cousins, Kevin Durant and Iguodala have forced this Warriors team to rely on their “Strength In Numbers” motto more than ever, as it was three of the most unlikely sources (Looney, McKinnie and Green) that accounted for the eight points the Warriors scored in overtime.

Stephen Curry vs. Meyers Leonard

The Blazers have needed players not named Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum to step up during this series — this time it was Meyers Leonard, who went off for a career-high 25 points at the half and finished the game with 30 points — the most he's ever scored in a college or pro game.

The big man reaped the benefits of hard traps on Lillard, which left him wide open for uncontested 3-point shots. Leonard answered the call, burying 10 of his first 12 shots in the first half, including 5-of-6 from downtown.

Yet for every shot he buried uncontested, Stephen Curry had an answer at the other end, not letting the game get away from his grip.

Curry ultimately closed the half with a personal 8-0 run and put the Warriors within four — a much more comfortable predicament than being down double digits like the Warriors were in the last two games.

Leonard was the hero the Blazers needed to come out ahead, but oddly enough, the Blazers were 0-3 in games in which he scored 20 or more points (h/t ESPN's Tim MacMahon) — a stat that would come back to bite them in this close game.

Golden State adjusted the pick-and-roll defense in the second half and switched on Lillard's high screen, partially shading Leonard and not giving him a clean look. As a result, Leonard would go 0-for-2 on threes in the second half, only converting on a mid-range jumper, splitting free throws, and hammering a transition dunk over Draymond Green late in overtime.

Given their poor luck against him in the first half, the Warriors didn't mind giving up those five points through the remaining 29 minutes of the game.

Closing quarters

The Warriors have gotten back to their roots as a team that can shave deficits at the end of quarters. Golden State showed its championship mettle in a mere 238.3 seconds of action. First closing out the first half with a Stephen Curry 8-0 run in the last 28.3 seconds of the second quarter and turning a would-be double-digit deficit into a 69-65 game at the break.

They would do so again in the third, repelling a Blazers 10-0 run with a 9-0 run of their own in the last 1:42 of the period, heading into the fourth trailing by eight points.

The Warriors would close out the fourth quarter not with shots, but with defense — clamping down for the last 1:48 of regulation after a Klay Thompson three tied affairs at 111, heading into overtime after a Curry traveling violation.

This type of focus is the championship-caliber moments a team wants to have heading into the NBA Finals. The Blazers might not have been much of a test in terms of resiliency and overall firepower, but they have forced the Warriors to test their mettle and their concentration in pivotal situations, a fiber of their system they can use against the Toronto Raptors or the Milwaukee Bucks in the next series.

Stat Brothers

Stephen Curry and Draymond Green have had a series to remember, perhaps reminiscent of their early championship runs in 2015 and 2016, where their fate depended on their combined ability to unlock their full potential at both ends.

Forced to play without an injured Kevin Durant, the duo put up eye-popping numbers throughout the series and became the first teammates to drape triple-doubles in the same playoff game, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

Both Curry (37 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists) and Green (18 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists) had a triple-double by the end of regulation and their impact on the floor was palpable.

Green has solidified himself as the Roman God of defense in this series and Game 4 was no exception. His timing, aggressiveness and defensive execution were a complete masterpiece in the Western Conference Finals and he's surely reaped the benefits of seeing the ball more at the offensive end of the court.

The Green-Curry connection was a theme all series long, but watching it unfold was a sight to behold, as the two constantly chipped away at the Blazers lead, not with heroics, but instead with pinpoint execution and heady plays.

https://twitter.com/dkurtenbach/status/1130666107793158145

Curry was a problem on or off the ball, as he gave the Blazers fits with his runs coming off screens — none better represented than this wild sequence that used all but one second of the shot clock before he buried a wing three after pump-faking Damian Lillard out of the picture.

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Curry played 47 minutes in total, including 36 minutes of straight basketball after playing the last 6:32 of the second quarter along with the entire second half and overtime periods without seeing the bench once.

The Warriors became the only team in the past 20 postseasons to overcome a deficit of 15 or more points in three straight games, as they trailed for more minutes (101) in their sweep of the Blazers than they led for (83).

Golden State outscored Portland by 61 in the second half and overtime periods this series and the Stat Brothers had their fingerprints all over those torching runs to put them in position to erase these large deficits.

History in the making

The Warriors have been shattering records since the 2014-15 team changed the scope of dominance for an NBA team. They continue to do so today, as a trip to a fifth straight NBA Finals is tied with the NHL's New York Islanders (1980-84) for the most consecutive finals appearances by any team in a professional sport in the last 50 years.

Golden State is also in elite company, becoming the only NBA team to muster five straight NBA Finals appearances since the 1957-66 Boston Celtics, who dominated a decade of basketball.

Stephen Curry is just the third player in NBA postseason history to score at least 35 points in each of the first four games of a conference or division finals. The two others are Jerry West in 1965 and LeBron James in 2009 (h/t Justin Kubatko of StatMuse).

Curry also saw his streak of 81 straight free throws in the fourth quarter and overtime of a playoff game end with the first of three attempts at the 9:25 mark, the first miss since Game 6 of the NBA Finals in 2015.

Curry's 26 made 3-pointers in this series were also the most made by any player in the first four games of a playoff series, according to StatMuse.

Golden State will have nine days of rest before tipping off Game 1 of the NBA Finals next Thursday, May 30th; awaiting the Bucks or Raptors to come out of the East. The hope around the organization is that they can count on the return of a healthy Andre Iguodala and the recovery of Kevin Durant from a calf injury, with DeMarcus Cousins still having an outside chance to return.

This team will undoubtedly need Durant to muster the elusive three-peat, in what Steve Kerr has described as the toughest challenge of his five-year tenure with the team.

All in all, the Warriors are playing for much more than breaking records and setting new ones in their wake, but for a chance to seal their five-year run as one of the NBA's dynasties, perhaps the most dominant of the modern era.