Against Westbrook and the Thunder, Durant and Warriors Finally Look Right

Late in the first half of the Thursday night's highly anticipated showdown between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors, Russell Westbrook came tearing around a screen and into the lane. By that point in the game, with the Warriors leading by 20, the move was as much a statement of identity as a basketball tactic, an assertion that he wouldn't quit no matter how many points separated his team from the stockpiled superstars in the other jerseys. It was admirable, for a moment. Then the Warriors snuffed his drive and kicked the ball ahead to Kevin Durant, who raced down the floor, rose for a three, and added to the Golden State lead.

That's more or less how things went. Before tip, the storylines focused on emotional drama: the jilted Westbrook sharing a court with the jilting Durant. As the game unfolded, though, basketball realities overtook interpersonal angst. Westbrook played angry, attacking the rim in a that might be most accurately described as "spurned lover pounds at a locked door," but no amount of anger could change the fact that the Warriors supplemented Durant with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, while Westbrook had to throw his kick-outs to Andre Roberson. Westbrook ran into walls of Warrior defenders, then those Warriors defenders ran the other direction, spun the ball around the court all teleport-like, and got buckets.

Durant won the one-on-one matchup, scoring 39 points and adding seven rebounds to Westbrook's 20 and 10 assists, but the more important outcome may have been that Golden State looked better than it had all season. The opening-night blowout loss to the Spurs and too-close wins over the Pelicans and Suns featured the hesitant play now familiar in nascent superteams: the over-passing and mistimed cuts, the defensive possessions where two players point at one another after giving up a dunk. Thursday night, though, the Warriors seemed to find their old mode. They ran when they could and settled into easy motion in the halfcourt, and their astonishing shooters hit astonishing shots. Curry shimmied, and Thompson spotted up. Durant got the ball whenever he had a mismatch and took his defenders apart. Everything was in proportion.

That will be the Warriors' season-long job: to figure out the mix. Despite the exhausting conversation surrounding them, they remain a joy to watch when they're right, a joy only compounded by the disdain certain opponents will bring to their matchups. Thursday night, the Warriors were trying both to get Durant a personally important win and to build up what they hope are championship habits; Westbrook had the luxury of focusing solely on revenge. With a 122-96 win, Golden State showed everyone that being pissed off won't be enough.