OKLAHOMA CITY — The young Oklahoma City Thunder quickly grew up following the first quarter of a 128-120 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
At least, that’s what Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault alluded to following their failed 21-point comeback attempt.
“I thought there was a little bit of a boogie man in the first quarter,” Daigneault said. “But once we opened the closet and realized there was no one there, we started playing.”
The scoreboard reflects Daigneault’s thoughts as the Thunder outscored the Warriors by 10 points in the final three quarters after finishing the first quarter trailing 38-20.
Alas, despite a valiant comeback attempt that saw the Thunder cut the Warriors’ lead to as little as two points in the fourth quarter, several timely three-pointers from the Splash Brothers cooled off the possibility of an OKC win — a site too familiar for Thunder fans.
The biggest one being Steph Curry’s eighth and final three-pointer that grew the Warriors lead to eight points with 2:35 left in the game.
Curry used an off-ball Andrew Wiggins screen to create enough space from the right-wing to swish in a three that iced the game.
“That first quarter was not good enough,” Josh Giddey said. “Dug ourselves a 20-point hole that we dug out of but it was too deep.”
It was a vintage night for the Warriors big three.
The Warriors were led by Curry, who finished with 38 points on 12-of-20 shooting and 8-of-14 3-point shooting along with 12 assists.
Without Lu Dort, Klay Thompson enjoyed 28 points on 10-of-21 shooting and 6-of-14 from 3. Draymond Green also finished with seven points, 12 assists and nine rebounds.
The Warriors shot 46-of-90 (51.1%) from the field and went 20-of-47 (42.6%) from 3. 37 assists were dished out in the win.
For the Thunder, they shot 46-of-93 (49.5%) from the field and went 11-of-24 (45.8%) from 3.
The biggest difference came from outside. The Warriors made nine more three-pointers than the Thunder, which essentially decided the game. It’s almost impossible to overcome a 27-point difference from the perimeter.
The Thunder’s fight to get to .500 continues on as they now drop two games below at 24-26. It just seems like they can’t overcome this hill.
Although, they do have a decent shot at finally breaking even with their next two games being against the Houston Rockets.
Let’s take a look at Thunder player grades.