Emotions are running high ahead of tonight’s highly anticipated showdown between the Warriors and Thunder, with Kevin Durant set to play against Russell Westbrook for the first time in their careers.
The media, fans and fellow league players are hyping up the matchup, including Warriors All-Star forward Draymond Green himself.
“I think it’ll be a lot of emotions,” Green said (via Monte Pool of csnbayarea.com). “They’re going to want to beat him really bad. He’s going to want to beat them really bad. In turn, we’re going to want to beat them really bad because we want him to beat them really bad.
“It’ll be a lot of emotions, but it’ll be a fun game to play in. It’s always a high-intensity game against them and I expect nothing less.”
While Draymond Green, who lives off of doing this, is using the thought of a highly competitive and emotional game to pump himself up, Russell Westbrook is doing the exact opposite. He doesn’t see a real difference in tonight’s game, despite it being against his former teammate in Kevin Durant.
“It’ll be like a regular game”, Westbrook said following the Thunder’s 85-83 victory over the Clippers Wednesday night.
Westbrook has little interest in discussing anything that has to do with Durant, denying reporters’ requests for answers after the game.
“Like I said in Oklahoma City, I don’t know if you guys know, but I told you guys, I’m not answering anymore Kevin questions,” he said. “So, if you wanna talk about basketball, I’m more than welcome to talk about that. But other than that, no.”
While Westbrook may be downplaying the upcoming game, Draymond Green certainly isn’t. He certainly won’t be treating tonight like a regular night in the office, as won’t any of the other players from both sides, whether they want to publicly admit it or not.
