KD drops 39 points in Dubs win.
Durant’s dominance, including a 29-point opening half, helps Warriors destroy former team
OAKLAND — A Russell Westbrook fumble led to a Stephen Curry steal that led to a Kevin Durant 3 — his sixth of the first half. Durant hop-stepped down the court and screamed in celebration. Oracle rose. Durant grinned. His former team, unable to contain their former captain, appeared defeated.
Durant ripped the franchise’s heart out four months ago. In a Thursday night first-half flurry, if they’d somehow forgotten about the canyon-sized hole he’d left, Durant reminded the Thunder in the cruelest of ways. He punished mismatches in the post. He flew around defensively. Then he erupted from the perimeter, uncoiling that 7-foot frame from 25 feet and lasered through 3s from an un-
blockable, unimaginable height.
The final: Warriors 122, Thunder 96, a blowout win Durant had already wrapped up late in the second quarter. But the interpersonal drama was there the entire night.
Russell Westbrook arrived to the arena pregame in a photography vest, the latest in his long, strange line of wardrobe choices. This one seemed to be attached to a message. One of Durant’s newest hobbies is photography. He shot the Super Bowl in Santa Clara last February. Westbrook knows this. Was it a subliminal cross locker-room shot to try to get in Durant’s head?
“I don’t care what no- body wore to the game,” Durant told ESPN.
Early on, Durant was quiet. He hit a 3 on the first possession and then disappeared for the next nine minutes. The Thunder burst out to an early doubledigit lead, capped off when reserve forward Jerami Grant put a poster dunk on Durant’s head and then got in his face.
“Not a good idea,” Steve Kerr said. “I think it got him going.”
“When you get dunked on like that,” Durant said as shook his head. “As a competitor, you want to come back at him.”
Moments later, Durant awoke, closing the final 2:42 of the first quarter with two 3s, a mid-post jumper and a reverse layup on Grant. After the layup, he landed, turned and yelled at Grant.
“Trash-talking is a part of it,” Durant said. “As long as we are in between the lines, everything is all good for me. I’m going to go out there and be who I am. Talk to me, I’ll talk back. If you start it, I’ll finish it. … No ill will.”
Durant’s hot streak carried over into the second quarter, when the Warriors took over on both ends. Durant played well in the team’s first few games, but hadn’t been accurate from deep, going 3-of-13 overall from 3.
In the second quarter alone, Durant nailed four 3s. He scored 17 points. The Warriors scored 37. The Thunder only scored 11. The game was essentially sealed.
But drama remained. Durant got into a late firsthalf shouting match with Enes Kanter, who continually roasted his former teammate on the Internet throughout the summer, including cupcake pictures and insinuations that Durant was a traitor.
It was an awkward moment. Durant didn’t interact much with Kanter in Oklahoma City. They only played together a yearand-a-half. But Durant was close to Steven Adams and Andre Roberson— particularly Roberson— who were seated next to Kanter. As Kanter and Durant continued to jaw back and forth, you could sense sadness in Roberson’s face. Adams, trying to diffuse the situation, reached over to Kanter to try to tell him to be quiet.
There were nice moments, too. Durant said hello to some of his longtime teammates pregame, including Nick Collison and Anthony Morrow. He shared a nice greeting with assistant coach Mo Cheeks and longtime Thunder public relations guy Matt Tumbleson.
But in the lead-up to the game, all anyone seemed to care about was how Durant and Westbrook would interact. They attended chapel together pregame. But right before tipoff and after the buzzer, neither acknowledged the other.
During the game, each traded highlight blocks. Westbrook got Durant first with a come-from-behind spike while Durant rose from about five feet out. A few possessions later, Durant swooped over in help defense to reject a Westbrook layup out of bounds. As the ball landed in the crowd, Draymond Green — never one to avoid a dramatic situation — roared at Westbrook. He was nailed with his second technical of the season.