Warriors Just Too Good for Thunder at Oracle

I’m not a moral victory guy, but in fact this was kind of a moral victory for Oklahoma City on Wednesday night in Oakland. Even with Steven Adams, the Thunder aren’t in the same class with Golden State. But then again other than LeBron who is. OKC competed hard and actually were tied with the Warriors 56-56 at the half, but then a run came and it came as we knew it would with the Warriors winning the third period by a score of 37-22 as Kevin Durant flexed his scoring prowess with a 40 point night which featured 13-16 shooting prowess. Make no mistake about it, Kevin Durant was Golden State’s best player on this night.

Without Adams, Donovan went small starting Jerami Grant for the second straight game with Adams still in the midst of the NBA concussion protocol program and back in Oklahoma City resting. And for the most part, OKC stayed small with Enes Kanter being the primary big for most of the game. Lauvernge and Nick Collison never saw the floor and Domas Sabonis was not a factor at all. Donovan went small, stayed small, and for a half it actually worked.

Even with Adams, OKC isn’t in Golden State’s class because it’s brutally transparent you’re not going to hang with a team like the Warriors with a player like Andre Roberson on the floor who is offensively challenged. Unless, a team can hang at least 116 points themselves it’s going to be tough beating these guys on most nights.

Russell Westbrook triple doubled with 27 points, 15 rebounds, and 13 assists. He played hard and did his best, Sam Presti just doesn’t have enough talent on this roster currently if he wants to hang with the Warriors and Cavs. It’s fairly evident.

Enes Kanter and Victor Oladipo both played well and actually gave Westbrook some much needed help. Kanter scored 22 points and Oladipo chipped in 20 points. Combined, Westbrook, Kanter, Oladipo scored 69 of the Thunder’s points, which means the rest of the roster scored 31 points. To me, most glaring in this loss was the fact the other three starters—Roberson, Sabonis, and Grant scored a combined 15 points. The Warriors aren’t the Grizzlies, you have to score and score big to hang with these guys because they have the best three pure shooters in the league in their starting lineup with Durant, Curry, and Thompson.

OKC drops to 25-19 on the season and is in 7th place in the West, and now firmly in second place in the Northwest Division behind the streaking Utah Jazz. The Thunder get a much needed rest and thankfully don’t play again until Monday night in Utah, which of course is good for me so as I can now focus on the Green Bay Packers NFC Championship Game and Caligula Lite’s inauguration ball in the interim. We can only hope Billy Bush isn’t there with a large supply of Tic Tacs so as to tempt our president elect to get carried away with the setting and grab a big ol’ handful of you know what with Putin and the world watching.

Nobody in Thunder Nation should be too down, unless you’re either Brian Davis or Michael Cage you had to know this was going to be a tough January. The Thunder are now 4-6 in the month with a very tough assignment at Utah next on the radar.

Keep your heads up, stay positive, and GO PACKERS!