The OKC Thunder need to stay wary of the wounded Warriors in order to return to the winner’s circle.
After losing to the San Antonio Spurs, the OKC Thunder return home to take on the even more depleted Golden State Warriors for the second time this season. Since the last time these two teams met the Warriors have lost Stephen Curry to a broken wrist and Draymond Green to a sprained finger. Even D’Angelo Russell missed games with an ankle sprain.
The injury bug has hit the Warriors hard this season. However, they have not gone into their shell in order to get the best possible draft pick they can. Warriors coach Steve Kerr is now patrolling the sidelines, actually coaching as opposed to letting his players do most of the work themselves.
Some of the players are responding to this as well. Second round draft pick Eric Paschall was massive in the Warriors second win of the season. In just under 40 minutes, Paschall collected 34 points on 11-of-19 shooting, including 4-of-6 from deep as well as 13 rebounds. Undrafted rookie Ky Bowman had 19 points as the starting point guard.
While these Warriors are not going to make the playoffs this season, they are will show plenty of fight and take games as they did in Portland. As a result, the OKC Thunder starting unit is going to need to be solid and prepared. OKC needs to get off to a good start and not let the Warriors get a sniff later in the game. The whole team needs to gang rebound and not allow second chance points.
With that in mind, it is time to get to the keys of the game.