Warriors’ scoring surges to test streaky OKC defense
Things were going pretty well for Brett Brown.
The Philadelphia coach had seen his team take a 74-52 lead on the defending champion Golden State Warriors on Sunday, had watched his 76ers hang 47 points in the first quarter and look poised for one of the season’s biggest upsets.
And then the Warriors unleashed a 47-15 third quarter and cruised to a 124-116 win.
“We feel good how we played for large majorities of the game,” Brown said afterward. “And then you just blink and you get hit in the mouth and you’re down 10, 12, whatever.”
Nobody turns a game faster than Golden State.
That could be a bad sign for the Thunder, which welcomes the champs to Chesapeake Energy Arena on Wednesday. At 7-9, Oklahoma City is susceptible to just the sort of haymakers Golden State can land.
Six times this season the Thunder has lost a game it led by double digits, and the culprit often has been a potent and prolonged run by an opponent. On Wednesday, the Thunder meets a Warriors team that specializes in them.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of terrific teams in the league and Golden State is at the top of the list,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “To be able to play against highlevel, elite teams, you’re gonna have to play for 48 minutes.”
So far, that’s been a problem.
The Thunder has built first-half leads of 11 points against the Timberwolves, 18 against the Celtics, 17 against the Kings, 11 against the Nuggets, 23 against the Spurs and 19 against the Pelicans.
It lost those six games by an average of six points.
“We get off on a run, we know the opposing team is gonna make a
run of their own,” forward Paul George said. “But it shouldn’t be us up 20 points and they cut it down and tie it up. We’re too good of a team to allow a team to tie it up after we get up 20 or 25, 15.”
Last Friday in San Antonio, the Spurs went on an 18-0 second-quarter run. After the Thunder sprinted to a 25-6 first-quarter lead in New Orleans on Monday, the Pelicans outscored them 32-12 to take the lead in the second.
And so it’s fair to wonder: What lead would the Thunder need to feel comfortable against the Warriors?
Golden State has won four games this season in which it trailed by at least
15 points. It fell behind by 24 at Philadelphia and by 22 at San Antonio and won both games.
It “would be cool,” Thunder center Steven Adams said, to limit Golden State’s offensive surges. But the Warriors get hot in a hurry.
Their starting lineup features four All-Stars in Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. They have a league-high five quarters with at least 40 points.
Brown, who’s worked in the NBA in some capacity since 2002, said Golden State has “as much firepower as any team that I’ve seen since I’ve been in the league.”
Limiting the Warriors’ offensive explosions
means that when a player helps on defense, another rotates into his place. It means closing out hard on shooters and defending without fouling, all sore spots at times for OKC this season.
“With this team, you just got to stay disciplined,” Adams said. “If you try and do anything, kind of gamble at all, that’s when they really come out and hurt you, with this team. So it’s just staying disciplined.”
If the Thunder can’t, it could be in for some long runs by Warriors — and a long night at The Peake.
“The game is built on runs. That’s gonna happen,” George said. “But we got to eliminate how much of a run we allow a team to go on.”