Durant’s statement sent loud and clear
OAKLAND — Kevin Durant wasn’t trying to adjust, adapt, assimilate or smooth his way into anything on Thursday.
Not this night, not this game, not this superstar, not against that team.
And while it might have at times looked like Durant was waging a one-man spree against former superstar cohort/semi-enemy Russell Westbrook, I don’t think that was the singular motivation for the new Warriors’ center piece, not necessarily.
I think what we saw in the Warriors’ 122-96 victory at Oracle Arena over Oklahoma
City, Durant’s former team, was Durant making a very simple and very loud statement to the world.
You can critique his decision to jump from the Thunder to the Warriors last summer, you can hope he fails, you can take shots at the Warriors for adding him, you can proclaim whatever you want ...
But when Durant is revving at full power, full agitation and full exultation, you aren’t going to beat him, or the Warriors, and you just might get embarrassed along the way.
Also: If you challenge Durant — as the Thunder players seemed to do throughout the first half, physically and verbally — you had better be prepared for an eruption.
“I know those guys over there, they know me,” Durant said. “Trash-talking is a part of it. Anybody that’s seen me play or that’s close to me or out on the court, they know what it is. As long as we’re in between the lines, everything’s good with me.
“You talk to me, I’ll talk back. I don’t really say much, but if you start, I’ll finish it. ... It was a fun game; no ill will. Just part of the game.”
After a long drumbeat of anticipation, sure, many people wanted a Durant duel with Westbrook. But that didn’t happen Thursday, because Durant took this game over in the second quarter and after that there was no point in true hostilities.
And that second quarter was a statement, by only one man.
At times towards the end of the first and all the way until halftime, Durant seemed to take on the entire Thunder team — took some bumps and barks from them, too, and bumped and barked right back, including a prolonged jawing match with Enes Kanter while Kanter was on the bench.
“He was talking to me,” Durant said of Kanter. “But how many minutes did he play? Three minutes. I’m trying to focus on whoever’s on the court. He’s trying to talk to me from the sideline.
“But I’m sure he’s going to put something on Twitter tonight.”
The emotional part started after Thunder forward Jerami Grant threw down a dunk in Durant’s face, yelled a bit about it, and got Durant’s attention.
That gave Oklahoma City a 29-19 lead in the first quarter ... and then Durant took this thing to another level.
He started scoring on one-on-one moves against over-matched defenders, he scored from deep, scored from deeper, and scored on a couple of emphatic dunks ... and scored a total of 26 points from the 2:42 mark in the first quarter through the end of the second.
Pretty quickly, Stephen Curry and the other Warriors were doing whatever they could to set up Durant for more.
By the time Durant was done, he had 29 first-half points, the Warriors had a 68-43 lead, and the Thunder defense was in ruins.
He made 11 of his 17 shots in the half, and was 6-for-8 from three-point distance.
It should be noted that Westbrook started the festivities by showing up to the arena in an “official photographer” bib — possibly a joke about Durant’s well-noted interest in photography.
The two men didn’t so much as look at each other in the minutes before the game — Westbrook stayed far away from the center circle for the opening tip — but they both attended the teams’ pregame chapel session and walked out one after the other.
It was as Durant said a few days ago — when they talk, it will be in private, not in a war of headlines or chest pounding.
Durant’s response on Thursday: 39 points on 15-for-24 shooting (7-for-11 from three-point distance); meanwhile, Westbrook, who came into the game with a league-leading 37.8 point average, scored 20 points on 4-for-15 shooting with 10 assists and 6 turnovers.
The best exchange, of course, came in the second quarter, when Westbrook swatted a Durant shot right out of his hands from behind, which was followed by a Durant tomahawk dunk, which was followed by Durant knocking away a Westbrook shot.
Then Durant gave a look to the crowd, which roared some more, and kept roaring, and everybody knew that there would be more coming in this game ... in this season ... and probably a lot longer than that.