Something amazing happened during the Thunder’s gentleman’s sweep of the Mavericks: Oklahoma City learned how to hate. To be sure, Russell Westbrook has always been salty and Kevin Durant continually proves to be far less nice to rivals and the media than he is to civilians. But the way the Mavericks nibbled at OKC’s skin like mosquitoes seems to have unleashed something more powerful in Durant and Westbrook.
The hate flows through the Thunder now
Oklahoma City found an angry streak in defeating the Mavericks, and that’ll be crucial to knocking off San Antonio.
Yes, the hate flowed through Durant. Westbrook abstained from commenting on the matter, reserving his heat for Charlie Villanueva and one unfortunate fan in Dallas. Both of them got their shots in, which is an interesting development for this duo given that they won the series easily. But for a historic off-night for Durant, they would have swept Dallas. The Mavericks won Game 2 by a single point; OKC’s average margin in the four wins was 23. Let us be clear: The Thunder destroyed the Mavericks as thoroughly as the Spurs destroyed the Grizzlies, but with a single irrelevant blemish marring the performance.
If Durant and Westbrook are this mad in a series this lopsided, how are they going to act when a team can actually challenge them?
We’ll find out next week. OKC faces the Spurs beginning on Saturday in a must-watch-every-second series. The Thunder have some history with San Antonio. OKC beat the Spurs 4-2 in the 2012 West finals to gain their first (and to date only) NBA Finals berth. In 2014, the teams met again to decide the West. Serge Ibaka missed the first two games due to injury; San Antonio won both on their way to a 4-2 series win. That was the second of three straight seasons in which OKC boosters have some claim to championship hopes being dashed by untimely injuries.
Oklahoma City is healthy now, though Ibaka is arguably not the third most important Thunderian any longer. That honor might go to Enes Kanter, whose extravagant interior game might create distress for Boris Diaw. Or perhaps it’s Dion Waiters, who takes the already spectacular OKC offense to another level when he’s hitting threes. (He shot 40 percent on threes in the first round.) There’s also Steven Adams, a bully of the highest order who will no doubt try to wriggle his way under LaMarcus Aldridge’s skin.
But in the end, it’s Russ and KD who matter more than all others combined. We noted the Mavericks’ attempts to annoy the Thunder into failure, but Durant was no saint in the first round either. There’s a nasty streak to the Thunder, perhaps egged on by Dallas, but also organic in a way. Westbrook’s manner has infected Durant and the team at large, and there’s really nothing nice about how they approach the game right now. Dallas thought stoking that fire would scorch up OKC from inside. Nope. Instead, it burned the Mavericks to a crisp
Stone-faced, merlot-sipping San Antonio won’t feed the Thunder easy motivation. But at this point it doesn’t look like OKC needs any help letting the hate pour out. This is who they are now, and Basketball Gods bless them for it.
