OAKLAND – The first nine minutes of action resembled the back-and-forth battle from just over five months ago, when the Thunder and the Golden State Warriors went toe-to-toe in a seven-game Western Conference Finals slugfest. What transpired over the ensuing 15 minutes, however, was a dominant stretch of shooting and defending by the Warriors, a blow that the Thunder couldn’t recover from on the second night of a road back-to-back.
The Thunder dropped its first game of the 2016-17 season, moving to 4-1 with a 122-96 loss to the Warriors in Oracle Arena on Thursday night. The Warriors, behind Kevin Durant’s 39 points, used a 24-5 run that spanned the end of the first and start of the second quarter to take total control of the game. The Thunder wasn’t able to fully bounce back from its second-quarter scoring drought, when it made just 4 of 25 field goals.
"We had good ball movement and player movement, and we were sound offensively. Then we went through a really bad lull offensively in that second quarter," Head Coach Billy Donovan said. "That probably hurt us, then the fact that they shot it so well from behind the line, and they hurt us on the offensive glass."
Early on, however, the game looked familiar. The Thunder switched everything out on the perimeter, preventing driving lanes and open catch-and-shoot looks, building a 10-point lead over Golden State. Steven Adams was cleaning up in the paint, scoring nine points on 4-for-5 shooting to go with three rebounds in his first nine minutes. The big Kiwi was saddled with a third foul just three minutes into his second-quarter stint, preventing the Thunder from ever getting back in rhythm with a player who had been vital to success.
The statistics tell the tale: In the first quarter, the Thunder shot 50 percent from the field and outscored the Warriors, 11-4, in fast-break points; the rest of the way, the Thunder only made 23 of 63 attempts (36.5 percent). A combination of missed shots and a need for better execution on the offensive end was combined with a lack of stops on the defensive end when the Warriors caught fire from behind the 3-point arc, shooting 14-for-30 from long range for the night.
“It’s going to be a great learning experience for some of the younger guys who had a chance to play,” Donovan explained. “We had the one difficult stretch there, a good portion of that second quarter, where we gave up some threes in transition and gave up some threes on second chance points.”
For the Thunder, Victor Oladipo led the team with 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting, including a 4-for-6 mark from the 3-point line while Westbrook scored 20 points and added 10 assists to go with six rebounds. For the first time this season the Thunder was out-rebounded, but it did manage to score 19 fast-break points compared to Golden State’s 12. That’s a sign of its insistence on getting back in transition defense, a crucial aspect of the game for Donovan’s group this year.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
By the Numbers
10 – Assists for Russell Westbrook who scored 20 points and added six rebounds
19-12 – Fast break points edge for the Thunder on the night
8-for-13 - Points for Victor Oladipo, aided by 4-for-6 shooting from three-point range
The Last Word
"We’ll get ready for the next game. It’s one game and one loss for us. We’ll move on." - point guard Russell Westbrook
Highlights: Thunder at Warriors - Nov. 3, 2016