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The Thunder backed up the notion that it could compete with the team with the best record in the NBA, beating Golden State for the second time by double digits. And Oklahoma City did it without its best defender, Andre Roberson, who is out for the season because of a ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee.
The victory brought forth the question: How confident is Oklahoma City against these Warriors?
“I’m confident every night,” Thunder guard Russell Westbrook said. “Regardless of who we play, every night I try to compete and make sure my guys are ready to play, regardless of who the team is.”
The Thunder’s confidence, however, hasn’t translated into consistency for the fifth-best team in Western Conference. While Oklahoma City has beaten some of the top teams in the league, including Houston, Toronto and Minnesota, the Thunder has followed up those wins with curious losses to Sacramento and Phoenix.
“Our confidence is there with about everybody we play,” Anthony said. “It’s just some days we put half a game together, we put a couple of quarters together.”
On Tuesday night, Oklahoma City forced the Warriors into 25 turnovers, scoring 38 points off of them. The Thunder also held the league’s leading 3-point shooting team to 28 percent from beyond the arc.
“Tonight we put a full game together,” Anthony said. “It was clicking on all cylinders, offensively, defensively, I mean we put it together every game like that we’re a tough team to beat.”
The game was par for the course in the season series. In two games, the Thunder has held the Warriors to 30 percent on 3-pointers and forced 47 turnovers.
While Westbrook is averaging a near triple-double against the Warriors. Thunder forward Paul George is averaging 29 points, two assists and eight rebounds, while sporting a 92.3 defensive rating.
However, Westbrook refused to let his team’s success against the Warriors control the narrative.
“It’s not about them.” Westbrook said. “I don’t want to make it a story about them. We beat them. It really don’t matter who we play tonight. Our job is to worry about our team.”
With a rematch in Oakland coming in a little more than two weeks, Thunder coach Billy Donovan echoed Westbrook’s sentiments.
“You never know from game to game,” Donovan said. “Tonight our guys played a great game but when we come back to play after the All-Star Game again, it’ll be a new game again.”
“Every game is a competitive challenge of its own and you just compete in it. So tonight we did a really, really good job and took a really positive step forward in terms of getting better in the areas we needed to.”
