Lowell Cohn: Thunder look dangerous for Warriors, but then threat blows over

OAKLAND - In case you're wondering, the Warriors don't have a problem.

The problem could have been the Oklahoma City Thunder if the Thunder were a problem. But the Thunder aren't.

Let me back up. The reason a game like Thursday's between the Warriors and Thunder mattered was because, well, it might be a game. The Warriors mostly don't play games. They play exhibitions. They make other teams look like stooges. Frankly, the rest of the regular season is - admit it - a giant parenthesis before the playoffs start and things finally matter and get serious.

Except for a home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, which by the way, the Warriors won 121-106. The Thunder were supposed to be a threat to the Warriors. The Thunder have two superstars - Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and a good supporting cast. The Thunder are real. Seem to be.

Reasonable people think OKC is the only team in the West that can threaten the Warriors in the playoffs. Not the Clippers. Not even the Spurs, who do not match up against the Warriors and have a combined age of about 1,000 give or take a century.

The key word here is “threaten.” No one says the Thunder can beat the Warriors in a seven-game series, the Warriors being the defending NBA champs, the team with the best record in the league. The Thunder may threaten them. And Thursday's night's game was a measure of the threat, a demonstration of the threat, a prelude of things to come.

Turns out the threat was strictly hypothetical. The Warriors beat the Thunder easily, beat them twice in five days. Beat them at their place and then beat them at the Warriors' place. The Warriors also swept the season series with the Thunder, three to zip. Just beat them.

Of course, Steve Kerr said sweeping the season series means “probably nothing.” That's called being diplomatic. Because it does mean something.

The Warriors trailed OKC by one point after three quarters. Close game. The Thunder hung tough. But the Warriors ran off the first seven points of the fourth quarter and outscored the Thunder 39-23 in the final quarter. Tore them up.

Or was it that the Thunder collapsed at the end, their specialty? The Thunder ran out, well, of thunder and lightning. They also played zero defense. Didn't have a clue on defense.

Give the Thunder a measure of credit. It was clear the Warriors had no answer for Durant, who scored 32, scored on layups and running jump shots, scored any way he wanted. At times he looked like a one-man team, certainly steadier than Westbrook, who shoots like a man with a broken arm.

Before the game someone asked Kerr how he'd guard Durant. “You have any suggestions?” he asked, laughing. “It's hard enough with Andre (Iguodala) and he's our best option on KD. We do have a deep team. We have a lot of guys we'll throw out there. Whether it's Harrison (Barnes) or Draymond (Green) or Brandon Rush, we can mix and match, even Klay (Thompson) a little bit. But it's pretty hard to cover that guy.”

Kerr put just about everyone on Durant. Barnes grabbed Durant so much Barnes looked like a lovelorn octopus. But it didn't matter. The Warriors are a better team than the Thunder. In every way. Better even though Stephen Curry missed a bunch of 3s. Didn't matter.

It so happens more was at stake than a showdown with the Thunder. If the Warriors could win, they would tie the record for the most consecutive home wins in NBA history. The record is 44 and the great Chicago Bulls set it over two seasons, between 1995 and 1996.

A reporter asked Kerr about that before the game, wanted to know if the Warriors felt pressure to tie the record. It was the standard “pressure” question, a variant of the “how much does it mean” question. In addition, the reporter wondered if there was even additional pressure because Prince would be in the house?

Why the presence of Prince would add pressure is beyond me. He sat next to Joe Lacob, Prince with a silver walking stick. He was extremely well-behaved, never once broke into song or ran onto the court to interrupt the action. He left at halftime. Maybe he couldn't take the pressure.

As far as the pressure meter went, Kerr said, “Zero,” as in no pressure. “Our guys relish the atmosphere, the pressure that comes with winning. If you lose, it's really not that big of a deal. It's a basketball game.

“Since we've been getting these stars coming to our games, it's kind of fun. Somebody told me we were nearing the Bulls' record. Well, I was on the Bulls team. I didn't even know we had that record. Twenty years from now nobody's going to care. What matters to us is winning the championship. That's our goal. Our goal is to be the 1 seed in the West. We want to have home court throughout the playoffs so we can play playoff games in front of Prince and whoever else is here.”

Someone asked if Kerr feels the same about the 72-win record, the most wins in a season held by the Bulls 1995-1996.

“Pretty much,” Kerr said. “That one, I think, is more significant than the 40 … (Kerr stumbled verbally, couldn't find the number.) See, I don't even know what it is. Forty-four? That one (the 72) people would remember a lot better. But in the end it's still the title that matters the most.”

Well, the Warriors ran their home-win streak to 44, tied the record. They have 55 wins. They eliminated the theoretical threat of the Thunder, who turned out to be a Drizzle, showed they were no threat at all.

Any other threats out there? Speak up. The Warriors are listening.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.