Warriors savor win by turning ‘cupcake’ tables

It had been a sweet win for the Warriors, and yet they wanted more. Icing on the cupcake. And so even before Golden State wrapped up a 130-114 win against the Thunder on Saturday in Kevin Durant’s return to Chesapeake Energy Arena to face his old team, his new one was working to pour a little extra salt on the affair.

Fans nearby wore T-shirts with orange and blue cupcakes on the front. The Warriors wanted them.

“I was bartering with one of the guys behind our bench the whole game,” Golden State guard Stephen Curry said after the game. “I told him if we won, I’m gonna take that T-shirt that he was wearing, and I sent him one of our Warrior warm-up T-shirts in exchange. So it was a fair trade, I think, for sure.”

The exchange was intended to show support for Durant, who was taunted with T-shirt, signs and chants referencing the dessert that’s become shorthand for Durant’s departure from Oklahoma City.

It’s a reference to a Russell Westbrook Instagram post on July 4, the day Durant opted to join the Warriors. A Sports Illustrated story last fall revealed that the photo — a multi-tiered plate of cupcakes — had been reference to Thunder locker-room vocabulary. Cupcake was slang for a soft player, a holdover from the Kendrick Perkins days in OKC.

Durant downplayed that report on Saturday night, saying, “I don’t think that anything that you guys think was a shot at me was a shot at me.” But he admitted he hadn’t asked Westbrook about it directly. Both players say they haven’t spoken since Durant’s decision to leave the Thunder.

But Oklahoma City fans have co-opted “Cupcake” as a Durant catchall. It was impossible to miss on Saturday, and the Warriors didn’t. They saw the cupcake signs, heard the chants as Durant scored 34 points in the win.

“It’s actually pretty disrespectful,” forward Draymond Green said in a sideline interview with ESPN, as he sported a cupcake T-shirt. “But when you come out and do what he did tonight and kind of silence all that noise, I’m rockin’ with it.”

[AP PHOTO] Fans wear cupcake T-shirts and hold cupcake signs during Saturday night’s game between the Thunder and Golden State Warriors in Chesapeake Energy Arena. Warriors star Steph Curry gave an OKC fan a Golden State practice T-shirt in exchange for a cupcake...