Warriors 108, Thunder 100:
3rd-quarter success missing in narrow win
Midway through the second quarter Tuesday night, David West appeared on the Oracle Arena big screen as the crowd roared. It was the Warriors fans’ chance to thank a man who, before retiring from the NBA in June, helped their team win two NBA titles.
Though it has been only a few months since he donned a Golden State uniform, West might have had a tough time recognizing the Warriors at times. In their 108-100 season-opening win over the Russell Westbrook-less Thunder, Golden State deviated from its trusted third-quarter formula, only to salvage things down the stretch.
The Warriors created distance early in the fourth quarter, but it was Stephen Curry’s 18foot pull-up jumper with less than two minutes
left that helped seal Oklahoma City’s fate. After nailing that shot while drawing contact, he turned around, leaned forward and pumped his fist before making his foul shot to give Golden State a four-point lead.
Little more than a minute later, a collective gasp emanated from the crowd when Kevin Durant hit a driving layup, fell hard to the floor and took several moments to get back to his feet. As he walked toward the Warriors’ bench during the ensuing timeout, Durant, grimacing, grabbed his tailbone.
“I’m good,” he said after the game.
That Durant wasn’t seriously injured was perhaps Golden State’s best news on a night it opened the season with a victory for the first time in three years. Though the Warriors will have plenty to feel good about during video review, they are surely hopeful that Andre Iguodala — who missed the entire second half with left calf tightness — won’t miss extended time.
Curry (32 points, nine assists, eight rebounds) and Durant (27 points, eight rebounds, six assists) paced Golden State. However, it was perhaps the team’s young big men who left the biggest impression. In his first career start, Damian Jones wowed with a flurry of dunks, finishing with 12 points on 6-for-7 shooting. His backup, Kevon Looney, chipped in 10 points.
“Steph was great tonight, and made some great plays for us when we needed it,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “I don’t know. I just know he’s awesome.”
Last season, after making adjustments only to the edges of the rotation, Golden State was plagued by inattention and boredom during an underwhelming 58-win regular season before it eventually swept Cleveland in the NBA Finals. With that in mind, the front office’s biggest focus in the summer was simple: help ensure that things will be more interesting for players trying to play into June for the fifth straight year.
The Warriors purposely got younger — particularly in the frontcourt, where Jones, Looney and Jordan Bell are being asked to fill the voids left by West, JaVale McGee (Lakers) and Zaza Pachulia (Pistons). It also helped that Golden State pulled off the summer’s biggest coup by signing four-time AllStar DeMarcus Cousins (Achilles injury) to a one-year, $5.3 million deal.
What the Warriors didn’t bank on, however, was flipping their third-quarter blueprint.
In recent years, to eradicate first-half issues, Golden State often needed only to review a couple of mistakes on video, open the floor to players for a brief discussion and send them back out to make necessary corrections. Last season, the Warriors outscored opponents in the third quarter by an average of 5.1 points per game. No other team boasted a better plus-minus in that period than 2.0.
But there Golden State was Tuesday, laboring at the time of the game it normally dominates. The Warriors rode big performances from Curry, Durant and Klay Thompson to a 57-47 halftime lead, only to open the third quarter with the same disinterest that marked numerous first and second quarters last season. In little more than four minutes, the Thunder bullied Golden State on both sides of the court, unleashing a 22-9 run to seize a 69-66 lead.
Dennis Schroder’s threepointer with 8:04 left in the third quarter gave Oklahoma City its first lead of the night. Moments later, after watching a Steven Adams layup, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called for time and barked at his players.
West, sitting across the court next to team owner Joe Lacob, watched intently. After an offseason of change, Golden State knows it will be a while before it starts capitalizing on its immense potential.