Durant: Capela has ‘easy’ role

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Warriors all heard about the quote from Rockets center Clint Capela, who announced “we’re better than them” after his team beat Golden State 116-108 on Saturday night.

“It’s all part of the game,” Warriors forward Kevin Durant said Monday after practice. “They beat us twice this year. Obviously we’re confident and we feel we’re the best team in the league as well. But we can be beat on any night.”

Though the Rockets have made no secrets about their singleminded obsession with beating the Warriors, becoming only the third team in Steve Kerr’s tenure to beat Golden State twice in the same season, the Warriors aren’t about to declare the Western Conference a two-team race.

Durant discounted the words, in part because of who they were coming from.

“You hear that from the guys like Capela, catching the ball and laying it up because his job is not as hard,” Durant said. “When your job is hard you know you can’t come out there and say (stuff) like that. I don’t expect that from (Chris Paul) and James (Harden). They know how hard it is to come out and do that every night. Capela, I mean, catch and dunk every night, so it’s pretty easy.”

It’s all bulletin board material for the playoffs.

“We don’t want to give those teams that kind of confidence but we let it happen,” Durant said. “If we end up seeing this team, I’m sure it will be a fun one.”

Said Capela: “I said when we do what we’re supposed to do we’re better, but of course, he just took the last three words and put them out there. … This is my role on my team. I’ve been doing pretty well. We deserve to say what we feel about the game.”