Though there’s bad blood between numerous NBA teams, the brewing rivalry between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors has become one of the premier matchups in the league. Obviously, there’s no shortage of backstories as Warriors forward Kevin Durant was once OKC’s centerpiece alongside Russell Westbrook. That all changed when KD made the decision to join Golden State last summer and the rest has been history.
We saw heated contests between the two sides all season long in 2016-17 and we should expect that to carry on this year, maybe in even more dramatic fashion. The Thunder have reloaded their roster to make a push in the West, adding Carmelo Anthony and Paul George in a full-fledged attempt to knock off the Warriors atop the Western Conference.
Obviously, the Dubs remain the cream of the crop out West and apparently, they still don’t take Russ or the rest of the Thunder seriously. According to ESPN’s Zach Lowe on The Lowe Podcast, the Warriors said in Jack McCallum’s Golden Days book that they ‘don’t fear’ Russell Westbrook because they find his style of play to be ‘easy to defend.’
While this is clearly what the Warriors truly think about Westbrook, this should only add to the growing chip already on Westbrook’s shoulder. Even though with the lack of weapons last year Westbrook’s style of play could be considered somewhat predictable, this kind of uniform comment out of the Warriors will only add fuel to the fire between these two Western Conference powerhouses.
Now with Anthony and George at his disposal, it’s a safe bet that Westbrook will be even more of a menace with teams now having to account for two other stars instead of keying in on the explosive point guard.
Though he may not average a triple-double or take home MVP hardware this season, Westbrook along with George and Anthony could very well transform this Thunder team into the type of unit the Warriors will deeply regret taking lightly.
