KD's masterpiece steals the show in
rout of Westbrook, Thunder
OAKLAND,
Calif. -- Kevin Durant and
the Golden State Warriors made theOklahoma City Thunder look like a team bereft of more than
the 2013-14 MVP. In a blowout that felt like a reckoning, the Thunder fell 122-96 on Thursday night.
Durant and Russell Westbrook were teammates once, perhaps you’ve
heard. That was the
focus before the
actual basketball happened, a rout that put pregame hype in stark relief.
Before 10:30 p.m. ET, it
was easy to forget there was basketball to be played. It almost seemed like a
distraction from a soap opera that got more retrospective than
edge-of-your-seat. From Westbrook, the buildup included a cold rebuke to the
term “selfless,” the declaration in a Jordan Brand ad that “some run,” thedonning
of a photographer’s bib and
a possible imitation of the Stephen Curryshooting routine.
It was wonderful theater, perfectly pitched to the tune of pro
wrestling. But unlike pro wrestling, these games aren’t predetermined to fit
the most thrilling of conventions. This is the NBA, in which talent tends to
stomp on good stories.
Thursday
night’s story started off compelling, especially when Thunder forwardJerami Grant ratcheted up the intensity with a
screaming dunk in Durant’s face, and a subsequent stare-down. In retrospect,
that was the death knell.
Or, as Warriors coach Steve Kerr put it, “Did he say a few
words? That’s not a good idea. I think that did get [Durant] going a little
bit.”
After the play, Durant awoke, and he made the game his showcase.
The Warriors started working around Durant in the post and built
from there. Soon, Durant was roasting Grant and everyone else on the Oklahoma
City roster. The transition 3-pointers were vicious, especially the one set up
by a Curry behind-the-back bounce pass. That kind of play represents a joining
of forces in which one will feed off the other. It’s the kind of play that
presages an MVP unbound, finally actualizing his potential within the Golden
State flow.
Durant ended the first half
with 29 points, ended the third quarter with an emphatic dunk and ultimately
finished with 39 points on 24 shots. By the final stages, he was gamely jawing
with Thunder center Enes Kanter as
the big man chattered from the bench.
“He was talking to me,” Durant said after the game. “How many
minutes [Kanter] play? ... I'm sure he's going to put something on Twitter
tonight."
In
the background of all this, Golden State’s defense cinched up spaces quite
wonderfully. On one illustrative play, Draymond Green and Durant converged at the rim to
block Westbrook’s shot twice. The Warriors are still testing out just what to
do about their center situation, but it appears their defense has improved in
the meantime. It can still wreak havoc, when focused, even without a
shot-blocking big man.
That’s pertinent to the team’s progression, but not necessarily
the story of the night. On whether this particular game helped him “move on,”
Durant responded, “Me, I’ve been kind of in the zone where I’ve been just
trying to look forward and think about the team I’m on and trying to be better
and trying to work hard for this team and my teammates.
"I think everybody else has been stuck in the past and has
been trying to bring me back with them.”
Do Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook like each other? Do they
still text? The answer might have mattered greatly before, but not right now.
In the present, Durant is on the Warriors, and the league is facing few things
as fearsome as his game in transition.
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