Warriors soldier on minus star
Without Durant, Golden State weathers losses
As the Golden State Warriors were finding their way without Kevin Durant during the last three weeks, losing four out of five games after he suffered a Grade 2 medial collateral ligament sprain in his left knee, Steve Kerr noticed something comical about the noise that surrounded his team. The hysteria was in full effect. Were the Warriors’ title hopes dashed? Were the last few seasons a façade?
“It’s entirely predictable,” Kerr said. “This is how our world works, this is how things (are) — especially for us, for our team. But I’ve seen it a million times.”
Never mind how the Warriors have won 195 of 233 regular-season games since the start of the 2014-15 season (.836) with two Finals appearances and one title. Clearly, the walls of Oracle Arena were closing in.
“It’s actually a miracle that we haven’t been through a stretch like this until now, over the last three seasons,” Kerr continued. “But it’s the reality of being in the NBA that things catch up to you, injuries, scheduling. People, they can panic. And we’ll just keep working and go about our business.”
Their business will come with an ironic twist Monday night in Oklahoma City. After all, no one knows more about surviving without Durant than the Thunder.
When Durant signed with the Warriors in free agency, the pos- sibility of the Thunder missing the playoffs was entirely possible. Eight months later, due to Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City is thriving. The six-time All- Star leads the league with 31.7 points per game, averages 10.5 rebounds and 10.3 assists and is still on track to join Oscar Robertson as the only other player to average a triple-double for an entire season.
At 40-29, the Thunder are sixth in the Western Conference and still within striking distance of earning home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Second-year coach Billy Donovan deserves plenty of credit. He set an early tone with Westbrook & Co. that ensured a focus on the future. General manager Sam Presti had a productive trade deadline, adding shooter Doug McDermott and veteran forward Taj Gibson in a trade with the Chicago Bulls. The Thunder, who have fallen to the Warriors in all three matchups this season, have transitioned about as well as any- one could have imagined.
What’s more, their recent play — a five-game winning streak in which they beat the Utah Jazz and the second-place San Antonio Spurs — should aid Westbrook’s MVP candidacy. Even with Westbrook’s historic play, collective success always matters when it comes to the MVP media vote.
Golden State is back to winning after a short respite from leaguewide domination. It’s good timing, as the Warriors are trying to hold off the Spurs to secure the top seed in the Western Conference.
With Durant scheduled to be re-evaluated at the end of March and internal optimism that he’ll return before the end of the regular season, it bodes well for the Warriors that they’re learning how to flourish without him. Since the Feb. 28 game when Durant got hurt, they have the league’s fifth-best defensive rating.
That’s no small feat considering that Durant was playing rim protector and leading his team in blocks. His offense is missed as the Warriors offense, once the NBA’s best, has been ranked 14th since the injury. It also helps that the “Splash Brothers” look like themselves again, finding their stroke throughout their threegame winning streak.
Without Durant, the margin for error is much smaller now.
“There’s always overreaction from fans and media; that’s all part of it,” Kerr said. “When you’re in it, you can see (the problems) really clearly, so you can’t pay attention to what anybody else thinks. You can see on the schedule when you’re going to make it through the storm, and then you hope you can get healthy, and then you do what you can. And then, whatever happens, happens.”