At the end of the first quarter Tuesday night, there was a strong sign that it was not going to be the Golden State Warriors’ night. With eight seconds to go, Moses Moody made a three to cut the Oklahoma
City Thunder lead to three points. Then, Steph Curry committed the first flagrant foul of his 17-year career to give Isaiah Joe three free throws with 1.3 second left. After time expired, the referees ruled Moody released his three-pointer after the shot clock expired, and suddenly the Thunder had a nine-point lead.
Things didn’t get better after that in a 126-102 Thunder win. Curry had seven points in the first quarter. He finished with 11, committing his fifth foul two minutes into the third quarter and leaving the game for good four minutes later with the Warriors trailing by 24 points. Draymond Green had four fouls and three points, and that’s not counting his technical. Trayce Jackson-Davis had six turnovers in 22 minutes and Jonathan Kuminga committed five.
Down 19 points at halftime, the Warriors went out and immediately got a delay of game technical. Not great! Jimmy Butler (12 points) staged a personal mini-rally by grabbing two steals and scoring five points in 45 seconds, but the Warriors never got closer than 16 points. After Brandin Podziemski picked up his fourth and fifth fouls, both trying to guard the 7-foot-1 Holmgren in the post, Steve Kerr waved the white flag and saved his players for tomorrow night’s game in San Antonio.
The game should have been a wake-up call for the Warriors that their inconsistent commitment to ball security and getting back on defense is going to hurt them against elite teams. It’s also going to hurt them against normal teams, but against the defending champions, they’re going to get embarrassed when they aren’t locked in. Maybe they can hit another gear in the playoffs, but it’s important to remember that this blowout happened while the Thunder were missing two starters in Jalen Williams and Lu Dort.
Curry came out firing in his first game back from illness, putting up seven points in the first 4:06. Kuminga lit Curry with a nice pass for a layup, part of a stretch where he scored or assisted on four baskets in five possessions.
After that, Cason Wallace put the clamps on Curry, matching his minutes and making it very difficult for Curry to get loose. When Wallace wasn’t on Curry, Alex Caruso took his turn, with multiple Thunder players committed to smothering Curry in transition.
Speaking of transition, the younger, faster, and more athletic Thunder tormented the Warriors in transition. Sometimes, OKC didn’t even particularly push the ball and still got easy, wide-open shots because the Warriors were too confused or slow to match up.
MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 28 points and 11 assists, but only made eight trips to the free-throw line, where he went 7-for-8. The foul merchant was only holding limited operating hours Tuesday night.
Chet Holmgren continued to torment the Warriors with a perfect shooting night: 9-for-9 overall, 2-for-2 on threes, 3-for-3 from the line. When other people missed, Holmgren grabbed 11 rebounds. He’s the 4th player in NBA history to put up a 20-10 game with perfect shooting, and he did it in only 25 minutes.
OKC also got 18 points from Isaiah Joe, who was drafted one pick after the Warriors selected Nico Mannion in the 2020 draft and has now outscored him by 2,420 points for his career. When he wasn’t drawing flagrant fouls on Curry, he sank three three-pointers and seven free throws, part of the Thunder shooting 44.4% from deep. Joe also got a technical on Draymond, who picked one up arguing a foul call late in the second.
It’s a shame Curry finally picked up a flagrant, but it is nice to know that NBA referees will call it if someone steps in the landing area of a player not named Curry.
The final score would have been worse had the Warriors’ foursome of Will Richard, Gary Payton II, Pat Spencer and Gui Santos outscored Brooks Barnhizer, Ousmane Dieng, and Jaylin “No, Not That One” Williams 30-19 in the final quarter. Spencer tied Jimmy Butler with 12 points, trailing only Kuminga (13) for the Warriors’ team high.
After the game, Green criticized his team’s effort, compared to their strong finish last season. He told reporters, “I think everybody was committed to winning, and doing that any way possible, and right now it doesn’t feel that way.”
We’ll see if that commitment returns Wednesday against the 8-2 Spurs, when Al Horford comes back from his rest and the team faces Victor Wembanyama, their old friend Harrison Barnes, and their old playoff foe De’Aaron Fox. San Antonio doesn’t have the playoff experience or pedigree that the Thunder do, but they do have a ball-hawking defense that can punish mistakes and sloppy passes.
It’s two nights in a row against potential playoff opponents. Let’s see how the Warriors measure up against the next one.
