The Oklahoma City Thunder have spent the Western Conference Finals turning a 73-win Warriors team into a hapless shell of itself. Oklahoma City's defense, led by all those long limbs and quick feet, has transformed Stephen Curry and the rest of Golden State's normally high-octane attack into an impotent and rudderless bunch. The offense, led by the explosiveness of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, has made the Warriors' typically stingy defenders look clueless and slow.

Durant and Westbrook have deservedly received the majority of the attention during this series, but the Thunder's supporting actors have also played a critical role. Steven Adams, Serge Ibaka and Dion Waiters are each playing their most inspired ball of the season. There's also an even less heralded player whose emergence has been every bit as essential in giving the Thunder this 3-1 series lead. That would be third-year forward Andre Roberson.

Roberson is on the floor for his defense, and he's yet to disappoint on that end. At 6'7 with long arms, Roberson is faster and more nimble than most players with his size. After pestering the Spurs throughout the last series, Roberson's defense is again giving the Warriors all sorts of fits. He's been a key cog in the new, dominant small-ball unit that Billy Donovan has unleashed this series as a counter to Golden State's heralded Death Lineup.

Roberson's biggest issues have always come offensively, where his crooked jumper empowers opponents to sag off him in order to better clog the lane. Roberson launched just 103 three-pointers this season, almost all from the short corners, and connected on 31 percent of them -- a lackluster conversion rate that still marked a considerable jump from the 25 percent he shot from deep the year before.

It came as no surprise that one of the Warriors' primary adjustments following their disappointing Game 1 loss centered around abandoning Roberson across the perimeter and sliding an extra defender into the path of Westbrook and Durant. It's a trick they pulled out of their bag last year against the similarly shaky Tony Allen and the Grizzlies in the playoffs, to much success.

Golden State essentially ignored Roberson throughout Game 2. It became common to see sets with Roberson standing wide open in the corner with the man ostensibly tasked with guarding him nowhere in sight.

The counter worked. The Thunder fell by 27 points. Roberson finished with just five points in 15 minutes of playing time. More worrisome: He failed to punish the Warriors for treating him as a non-threat.

That all changed in Game 3 and reached even new levels in Game 4 when Roberson finished with a career-high 17 points -- he'd never scored more than 15 in an NBA game before -- to go along with 12 rebounds and five steals.

It all started with Donovan's decision to counter the Warriors' scheme by utilizing Roberson even more in Game 3, a strategy that on the surface seems to run counter to common basketball sense. Doing so turned out to be a brilliant move. Instead or relegating Roberson to the corner, where there's nothing to occupy his mind other than thoughts about why he's being left so open, Donovan tossed Roberson into the middle of his team's offensive actions and instructed him to constantly be on the prowl for lanes to the rim.

Gone were the plays where Roberson was told to park himself in the corner and wait for a teammate to maybe throw him a pass. His new role? Setting on-ball screens for Westbrook.

And off-ball picks for Durant.

This subtle change has opened up the floor for the rest of the Thunder by preventing the Warriors from stationing an extra man in the paint. It's also transformed Roberson into a dangerous weapon who's torched the Warriors the past two games and left the league MVP searching for answers as to how a career four-points-per-game scorer has managed to get the best of his team.

"They made some great adjustments to get him to the right spot on the floor," Curry said after Game 4, via The Oklahoman. "We gotta look at the film to figure out where our rotations are."

Roberson has also connected on four of the eight three-pointers he's attempted over the past two games, which isn't a coincidence. It's easier to knock down jumpers when you feel like part of the offense's flow and the looks are coming off natural movements. It's not as if Roberson is the only one benefiting from his new-found skills. The Thunder have been more than 15 points per 100 possessions better with Roberson on the floor this series, per NBA.com, and are getting outscored by more than four points per 100 possessions when he sits.

"It's funny," Donovan said to the media following Game 4. "After Game 2 people are saying to me: ‘Is this guy going to even play anymore?' Andre's a good basketball player and I think sometimes the things that go missing with him is he makes winning plays."

For years now, this supporting cast surrounding Westbrook and Durant has been at the heart of the doubts surrounding OKC. Their role players could defend but couldn't score or could score but not defend. Westbrook and Durant have always been great, but you can't win a title with a lineup full of players who can only contribute on one side of the floor.

That's what's made the stellar play of Roberson so intriguing. It's not just that he's helped OKC push the Warriors to the brink. He's also given the Thunder something they haven't had since Westbrook and Durant rose to prominence: A two-way wing capable of defending opposing stars who can also keep them honest when OKC has the ball. Turns out the player the Thunder have spent years searching for has actually been on their roster all along.

* * *

Draymond Green's flagrant foul in Game 3