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Coming into this match up, the hype of the former OKC dynamic duo battling it out at the Oracle Center seemed like a set of events that would only expand the silent feud for the next three seasonal games to come. The constant comments from Durant on his former team's play style, the early struggles of his newly hashed super team, as well as Westbrook's record setting performances in the first four games of the season have all lead to a game that many have been waiting for since early July. With all this being said, did this duel live up to the hype?
From the beginning of this game there was a heavy layer of awkwardness on the court that I haven't really felt in an NBA game. After everyone's pregame routines, no one from opposite ends communicated (including Westbrook and KD). The vibes of a playoff game surrounded this early season game. After what seemed like hours, Sabonis grabs the ball after the tip off to start the game. Early into this game, Steven Adams seemed to completely dominate Zaza Pachulia with a couple crowd stunning moves and offensive rebounds that immediately weakened the roars of the jam packed crowd in Oracle. It become obvious to everyone watching that OKC owned the paint and had planned to continue this onslaught on Golden State's most open wound. Half way through the quarter, it seemed that OKC was pulling away as the Warriors struggled on their perimeter scoring so far. The second chances constantly piled up for the Thunder without response from the Warriors. With 2:23 left on the clock for the first quarter, the paced seemed to only go OKC's way as a shocking barrage of three pointers consistently landed in their favor. The quarter had seemed lost for Durant & co.
Within the last two minutes of the quarter, Kevin Durant led a stunning comeback in which he himself scored 8 points within that span. After attacking the paint multiple times, Durant hit what would be a dagger with 4 seconds left to bring the game back to 32-31 after losing by 10 points merely two minutes ago. Even while still having a one point lead, OKC insisted on launching outside shot after outside shot. They seemingly strayed away from the play style that had them up in the first quarter of the game. Westbrook was subbed in after only two and a half minutes on the bench as the bench squad seemed to be blowing the game. With KD out of the game, Curry started to shimmy and draw fouls, furthering their lead by double digits. Durant continued this pace by draining back to back threes once he was subbed back in. At this point, Westbrook seemed desperate with his perimeter shooting. Certain stretches of missing from Golden State were not punished but instead being matched with a flurry of outside shots. After many missed shots (and even free throws), OKC seemed to have the life taken out of them as the Warriors started to click and take advantage of OKC's decision to go small half way through the second quarter. By the end of a horrid quarter, the Warriors amassed a 25 point lead while keeping OKC down to 11 total points in the same quarter. Durant lead with 29 points in the half.
The third quarter didn't go any better as Durant, Curry, and even Klay (who was been off so far this season from the three) bombed OKC with threes, many coming off of second chance opportunities. The passing ability shown after offensive rebounds lead to many wide open threes as the defenders seemed to have given up, opting to simply stare as shot after shot went in. While Oladipo managed to step up on all sides of the floor, it seemed that nothing would be able to halt the offense of Golden State. By the end of tough quarter defensively, the Warriors led by 28. OKC's offensive attack in the third could not counter attack their sloppy play on D. The fourth quarter was merely garbage time for OKC, who had pulled their starters in this scathing beat down. It was also stat padding time for Durant and Klay (they really had no business being out there).
All in all, the match up that many were expecting never came to fruition. This game was one of leads and was never truly competitive as both teams had big runs at different points of the game. Westbrook's attempts to score from outside drove him and his team down as he shot an awful 26.7% from the field. Oladipo's run sadly came late and there seemed to be no effort after the first quarter to feed Adams, who dominated early in the paint. If there's one good note to draw from this game for OKC, it's that Sabonis played well and showed his scoring abilities from every side of the court.
Kevin Durant managed to put up 39 points in 31 minutes of play to lead his team to a momentous win. Although this was a situation where a win was expected and loss would be completely embarrassing (being apart of super team, after all), this performance showed Durant's edge on the court as well as to lead a star-studded team as one of the best scorers on the planet. This game showed the Westbrook desperately needs help if OKC has any plans on going deep into the playoffs. One man can only do so much and at this pace that Westbrook is being forced to push, I'm truly concerned how long he'll last this season. The young guys with newly acquired extensions just aren't there yet.
Warriors dominate Thunder 122-96.
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