A night to forget for OKC Thunder
Coming into the last night’s game, there were kind of big expectations for the Thunder, as they were playing in front of the home crowd and are in a tight battle for the third seed with the Trail Blazers and the Rockets. They were coming after another awful loss against Indiana Pacers on the road, a game in which they led by as many as 19 points, and many thought that this will be a revenge game, as well as a statement one. But things looked very differently when the time came, and right when you thought that maybe there is a crack in the Warriors system without Durant, they started the game in a very dominant fashion, going up front with 10+ points, and never looked back since then.
The problem with the Thunder in the first half was the fact that they played too much one on one basketball, without any ideas on confronting the Warriors defense, Paul George was shooting way too forced 3s with 14+ seconds still left on the clock, while Russell Westbrook was scoreless in the first two quarters, going 0-7 from the field. Give all the credit to Klay Thompson for that, because he was locking down defensively Russ, and he was so good at the other end of the floor that Westbrook even got frustrated at some point. On the other hand, Golden State was on a roll throughout the whole half, with Steph Curry draining threes from everywhere in his unique style, off-the-dribble, coming off a screen. He had 19 at the break, hitting 3-6 from beyond the arc. Klay Thompson was also in his zone, not only in defense, scoring 14 points in the first and passing Peja Stojakovic for 17th place on the all-time 3PM list, with 1761. Since Kevin Durant injured his ankle again, Demarcus Cousins started to get more involved in the Warriors’ offense, and this particular thing could be seen throughout the game. He finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Even Draymond Green was shooting the lights out, as he had 9 points, all of them coming on 3-pointers.
The Thunder played so bad this game that after the first half the game was already done, as the Warriors were leading by 19. When the second half came, nothing really changed for Oklahoma, as Westbrook continued to miss wide open shots. Paul George made some baskets and tried to bring them back, but the most that he could do was getting them to 13 points, nothing less than that. He struggled this game, too, as he shot 9-25 from the field. Overall it was a very disappointing game, if we take in consideration that the expectancies were very high. It was that type of night when nothing is going your way, and they need to get this match off their heads as soon as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVEJeBDuKmM
