Oklahoma City Thunder vs Warriors – Lessons Learned
By Sean Reece
The Oklahoma City Thunder lost for the third time this season to the Golden State Warriors which provided valuable lessons learned moving forward.
As many people know, Saturday marked the first time Kevin Durant returned to the Oklahoma City Thunder Chesapeake arena since leaving in July. It was a very emotional night that started with mostly boos mixed in with some cheers during player introductions. The night definitely felt like a playoff atmosphere. Fans standing for most of the game hoping for that Durant vs Westbrook match-up.
Although the final score was far from a close game, it was arguably the most interesting and fun game of the season for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Down by nearly 30, people were still standing and cheering their hearts out in hopes for an Oklahoma City Thunder comeback.
The Oklahoma City Thunder made a small little run to cut it to almost single digits in the mid fourth quarter, but ultimately the Warriors pulled away to win.
Lessons Learned:
Warriors are best team in NBA:
With every loss comes things we watch for, and last night taught me a lot of things about both teams. One thing that was obvious for everyone watching was the Warriors are the best team in the NBA right now.
Even though the Thunder played it close at times, the Warriors would suddenly push the lead to 20 points in the blink of an eye. That is what the Warriors do. You think you have them in a good spot and boom they bang in a couple of threes and you’re out of the game again.
Must Read: Dispelling the myths and appreciating Russell Westbrook for who he is
OKC Thunder bench depth is sorely lacking:
The Thunder greatly miss Enes Kanter and Saturday night clearly showed that. In the last match-up, Kanter was the Thunder’s second best player scoring 22 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
Without Kanter off the bench, the Thunder had no scoring once Russell Westbrook came off the court. Even though Steven Adams was out last game and played this game, having Jerami Grant off the bench as your highest scorer will not bode well for the Thunder.
Related Story: Kanter – Domino Effect of a selfish Act
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/830635616396312578
The beef with Durant is a real thing:
The Thunder still have a beef with Kevin Durant. We saw this twice on Saturday. One was a physical altercation between Andre Roberson and Durant which resulted in double technical fouls.
As we see, Durant believed Roberson fouled him hard and exchanged some heated words. Roberson was definitely not having any of it and confronted Durant. Later on in the game, the Thunder hit a couple of big shots to get the crowd back in it and resulted in some classic Durant vs Westbrook trash talking.
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/830634844602429440
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Durant initiated the talk, but Westbrook responded with a simple “I’m Comin.” Even though Kanter did not play, he played the trash talk game.
Westbrook needs help:
The last thing that we learned from Saturday’s night game is Westbrook has zero help.
Without Kanter off the bench, Westbrook has to literally score nearly 50 a night now to even keep the games close.
The Thunder cannot operate like this especially with the trade deadline coming up, something must change.
To that end, with Kanter out for another few weeks, the Thunder need to get Westbrook some help if they intend to make a playoff seeding push.