Kevin Durant and Warriors Rout Thunder Again

Of the 32 players averaging 20 points per game this season, Harden is No. 5 in True Shooting percentage at.614. The total opened at 227 and was bumped up a full point to 228 on game day morning.

Durant turned in an insanely efficient stat line, leading all scorers with 40 points on just 16 field goal attempts (13-of-16).

The audio isn’t perfectly clear, but it certainly sounds like Westbrook says, “E, don’t say what’s up to that bitch ass”. The Thunder also slowed Golden State’s early offense by forcing seven turnovers. Steven Adams! Where were you this play?

Just before half-time, Thunder superstar Russell Westbrook was flattened by Warriors centre Zaza Pachulia, who then stood over the prone OKC guard, as he writhed on the floor. Pachulia was handed a flagrant foul 1 for the play, following a review by the officials. He missed OKC’s next two games, at the L.A. Clippers and at Golden State.

TURNING POINT: After a Jerami Grant jumper pulled the Thunder into a 63-63 tie with 7:55 left in the third quarter, the Warriors came back with an 8-0 in only 43 seconds, taking a 71-63 lead with 7:12 left in the quarter.

Russell Westbrook and Lebron James are built the same way.

“Every player in the National Basketball Association wants to play well against his old team”, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Durant’s performance.

The Warriors visit the Thunder on February 11.

The Thunder dropped to 25-19 and the gloss of Westbrook’s 27 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists was somewhat dimmed by his 10 turnovers.

Asked if he is once again on speaking terms with former All-Star teammate Durant, Westbrook had a one-word response: “Nah”. “You need to sit closer to the game; maybe you didn’t see it clearly”. The OKC Thunder on the other hand, are coming off a 120-98 beatdown at the hands of the LA Clippers to lose for the second time in their last three games. After dismantling the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers Monday and knocking off Durant’s team for a second straight time Wednesday, the Warriors will get on a plane Thursday and head to Houston for a showdown with Harden and his Rockets in a potential Western Conference finals preview. And the shots that both players did get – whether Thompson threes or Green dunks – came in the joyous flow of the Warriors’ team-oriented approach.