NBA: 5 talking points from the Warriors-Thunder game
On Thursday night, two of the hottest teams in the league were set to go head to head in front of one of the the loudest crowds at the Oracle Arena. It was the Golden State Warriors, that had lost only game in their last 17, versus the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team that has won six of their last seven games since its superstars Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant made their return from injury.It was a game where the top defensive teams in the league were engaged in a head to head high octane offensive contest. Led by Stephen Curry’s near triple double performance, the Warriors came out victorious over the Thunder in a battle that went down to the final minutes.More importantly there ware a lot of talking points that could affect the future of both these teams.Without any further ado, let us get to the 5 takeaways from this duel between the two Western Conference giants:
#5 Golden State Warriors bounce back with a win
A night before facing the Thunder, the Warriors’ best unbeaten streak of 16 games came to an unfortunate end against the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum. Despite their loss, Golden State still had the best record in the league at 21-3. Flow and offensive balance are the reasons why the Warriors are one of the top 5 offenses in the league.
Over the course of their 16 wins, the Warriors have rallied back from many deficits to eventually seal the win, but they failed to do so against a Grizzlies team who used the injuries of David Lee and Andrew Bogut to their advantage. Memphis pounded the ball inside to Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph in the paint and took charge of the game against a shorthanded Warriors front court. While the Warriors were being manhandled in the paint, couple of key players in Draymond Green and Stephen Curry struggled shooting from the field which disrupted the team’s perimeter offense.
After a disappointing game in Memphis the Warriors returned home and took care of business in their fashion shooting 47.7% from the field and 43% from long range. Stephen Curry led his team in the bounce back with near triple double figures of 34 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists.