Warriors snap OKC’s winning streak, 114-109

BOX SCORE

OAKLAND, Calif. — I just feel so cheated.

Forget the Thunder’s seven-game winning streak coming to an end. Forget the fact they lost another agonizing game to the West’s current best team.

Kevin Durant was supposed to go for 60 tonight.

After he hit that first 3, you could tell. Durant was getting out the frying pan and spatula. He was about to cook. Then he hit another one. So obviously, you knew the next one was going up. And he hit it. Three straight 3s in 90 seconds. The fourth one, he might as well been wearing a neon sign that said “I AM SHOOTING THIS FROM 3.” The Warriors ran their whole damn team at him as he elevated, but this one caught back iron. Had it dropped, by rule, the game would’ve had to been stopped to allow fans to rush the floor.

Weird thing was, Warriors fans wanted that fourth one to fall. I’ve never seen an opposing crowd do that. It was like a pitcher going for a perfect game. Durant had won them over, if only for a brief moment, where everyone wanted to see KD go full Rucker right there in front of them, in an NBA game.

“Just sit back and watch,” Russell Westbrook said. “As you know he’s one of the best players in the world and when he gets going like that, there’s not too much you can do.”

In 18 minutes, Durant had 30 on 10 of 13 shooting, including 5 of 6 from 3. He had that pesky 35-minute restriction to deal with, but he was headed for a special night. But with only a couple seconds left in the first half, he attacked the basket as Marreese Speights slid under him to take a charge. Durant stepped on Speights’ foot, rolling the crap out of his right ankle. He laid on the court as his teammates circled him, eventually getting up to limp off the floor mostly on his own. It was over, though. He was done for the night.

“They had to convince me not to play,” he said. “It was the foot I had surgery. I wanted to play, I wanted to go back out there, but they just wanted to be cautious.”

The whole first half was just straight fire. We need to put that thing in a time capsule and show it to generations in 200 years. If you could grind up a half of basketball and snort it, I totally would. Durant was smoldering, Steph Curry was hitting ridiculous rainbows, and both teams were flashing brilliant speed and athleticism. It wasn’t basketball. It was art.

Durant’s injury zapped all the energy out of the building. It was like we all sobered up way too early at a party, and tried to make due the rest of the night. With Durant out, it was on Russell Westbrook to carry the load, and somehow, the Thunder kept within shouting distance of the Warriors. With 2:59 left, Westbrook gave the Thunder a 105-104 lead, and presented an incredible opportunity to steal a magnificent win.

Curry immediately answered, and the Thunder offense mostly melted down. Reggie Jackson — more on him later — missed a forced 3 and Westbrook missed a forced 3. The Warriors got a putback from Draymond Green, a scoop shot from Curry and a dagger turnaround post-up from Harrison Barnes to put the Thunder away.

Three big non-Durant thoughts on the actual outcome:

1) I saw some bubbling criticism of Westbrook, that he tried to do too much, that he went hero too often. Listen people: You can’t have it both ways. You can’t beg for him to carry you, fist-pumping those 15-foot pull-up daggers, and then want him to chill out and all of a sudden run Spurs-ian offense. Did he make some poor choices? Hell yes, he did. But you know what you’d be saying had Westbrook moved the ball and not taken the onus? You’d be saying, “Why the hell was Westbrook passing? HE NEEDED TO TAKE OVER.”

Brooks took responsibility for the isos, though.

“It was too many,” he said. “It was too many. That’s on me. We have to do a better job. We have to make sure the ball keeps moving.”

2) I didn’t like the lineup choice down the stretch. The Warriors have played this game on the Thunder before, using Barnes as the crux of their offense when OKC goes with Jackson and Westbrook. The Thunder were switching everything, so the Warriors were able to pick out the matchup they liked — Jackson on Barnes — and isolate it. With Jackson playing maybe the worst game of his career, and the Thunder offense so clearly Westbrook driven, why not go with Perry Jones in that situation? Or heck, and I realize this sounds crazy, Lance Thomas? Brooks obviously wanted two creators/playmakers on the floor to try and create offense, which I totally get. But Westbrook can do most of that on his own, especially if…

3) You involve Serge Ibaka just one freaking time at least. This is what I don’t understand. The Thunder’s crunchtime offense wasn’t necessarily horrific. I saw people griping about the lack of creativity and that Brooks is an idiot, but if you watch what they were running, it was a decent principle. Jackson screened on ball for Westbrook with Ibaka dragging up to re-screen on either a Westbrook drive, or for Jackson if there was a kick. It was a double action, something to make the defense really think. The issue is, the Thunder never involved Ibaka in it.

How many shots for Ibaka in the fourth quarter? zero. I don’t know if he even touched the ball outside of a rebound or the time he fumbled away a pass into Anthony Morrow’s hands. Why is it so easy to create those smooth pick-and-pop looks early, and then not even consider them late? I asked Brooks this postgame.

“We didn’t make some shots and we you don’t make shots, teams collapse the paint,” he said. “We’re not going to go cold every night. We had some opportunities to score, we missed some easy ones, we missed some free throws. Those things happen. Definitely we have to keep improving how we play and we will.”

So…?

I saw plenty of Twitter angst about this loss, but it was always going to be a tough one. And it got really tough a few seconds before halftime. It’s funny: Thunder fans were riding high and feeling so good the last two weeks, leaving any postseason worries behind them and turning their attention on things like the four or five-seed. One little loss on the road to the league’s best team and it’s like there’s been a massive setback.

The Thunder didn’t play all that well, but that’s the kinds of things Kevin Durant can fix on his own. Those crunchtime possessions where the offense looked light on options? Put the ball in No. 35’s hands and let him hit a sick shot over someone and it’s all good. The Thunder have still won nine of 11, and while they lost ground tonight in terms of the eight-seed, big picture, they’re still moving forward just fine.

NOTES:

• I’m not going to get over the fact we were robbed of something special tonight.

• Story on KD’s injury situation.

• Durant’s first half was straight up Targaryen. It was like he was Khaleesi’s dragon that roasted the city of Astapor to the ground.

• KD downplayed his first half: “I just made a few shots, man, to be honest. I’ve been feeling good the last week or so. I just made a few shots today, that was the difference.”

• Durant has a history of torching the Warriors. His career-high of 54 came against them last season.

• Thing is, the first half wasn’t especially good offense, in all actuality. The Thunder were lighting up the league’s top defensive team, but they were doing it in classic Thunder fashion — but just having effing good players.

• The Thunder’s last four first quarters: 39, 41, 34 and tonight, 40.

• Westbrook’s streak of 20-5-5 games ended. He had 33-3-8. What a loser.

• Westbrook’s game was a bit of a Good Russ/Bad Russ kind of night, though. He went 11 of 30 shooting and took some really bad ones. He turned it over six times. His defense was spotty. I thought he looked exhausted at times. He played his butt off, as you’d expect, but his choices weren’t the best.

• I can’t rationalize what Brooks was thinking in the second quarter when the Warriors went super small with Draymond Green at center, and he kept Perk on the floor. EVEN OUT OF A TIMEOUT.

• The Thunder just couldn’t solve the Warriors going extreme small. Which is weird, because that should play well into OKC’s hands. But without Durant, the personnel just didn’t really work.

• On Reggie Jackson: He flat out stunk. I don’t know if he’s lost confidence or what, but he just struggled. The Thunder kept trying to get him going, and Jackson responded once with a nice runner in crunchtime. But he didn’t attack the rim, and he dribble the air out of the ball. And his defense was horrible.

• Now, that said, I saw plenty of “TRADE REGGIE” or “GET RID OF REGGIE” talk. Come on now. He’s had a bad stretch. He’s re-adjusting to coming off the bench. He’s probably trying to get over that fact as well. He’ll come around.

• Brooks on Jackson: “He had a tough game. He’s had a tough couple games. But he’ll bounce back. He’s one of the best finishers in the league, but he had a tough game. He understands that. I anticipate he’ll play much better tomorrow night.”

• A lot of people have wondered if the Warriors (or whoever) is going to reverse tank to miss the Thunder in the first round. I’ll go ahead and put it on record: The Thunder aren’t going to be the 8-seed.

• Andre Roberson had his first career double-double. And played a pretty nice game overall. He hit a 3 (and had one rattle in and out) and was aggressive attacking the bucket. Positive stuff.

• Eight missed free throws didn’t help much.

• The Warriors are so tough. They just come at you in waves. There’s never an opportunity to let down at all. Each possession, there’s a major threat. That team is nasty good.

• Westbrook made his first shot, a transition pull-up, and turned around and fired a huge haymaker of a high five at Steven Adams. It was 4-2 at the time.

• The Warriors had an outstanding pregame video. Their whole pregame atmosphere was terrific. A lot more empty seats at tipoff than I expected, but traffic getting to the arena is some kind of nasty. I’m surprised anyone was there at all, really.

• Ibaka’s block on Harrison Barnes in the first quarter was something. It looked like Ibaka was loafing his way back, but all he was doing was calibrating and timing it up.

• Westbrook was asked postgame about his thoughts on the Rondo trade: “Nothing.” Pro-tip: Don’t ask Russ dumb things after a tough loss.

• So long everyone, I’m moving to Oakland to cover the Warriors. Their media room has Diet Dr. Pepper on tap, with big cups. I didn’t even watch the game, I just stayed in there.

• Also: The Warriors gave me a pack of M&Ms with my credential. Weird, but thanks!

Next up: At the Lakers on Friday