While everyone’s hot on the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, for good reason, Kevin Durant doesn’t think anyone should be sleeping on his Oklahoma City Thunder.
The All-Star forward conveyed this message to Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports:
“I’m not saying that they’re necessarily light years better than us,” Durant said, via Yahoo Sports. “Those other teams are playing at a crazy, crazy level, winning a lot of games. They’ve won more games than we did. That’s the difference.”
The Spurs and Warriors have lost a combined 11 games between them this year as opposed to 13 for the Thunder. It’s not just a few more games we’re taking about here — the two top teams in the Western Conference are clearly on a different plane of existence than the rest.
But it’s not just this year Durant is referring to. He looks at the championships won by the Spurs and Warriors the past two years and wonders what could have been without injuries derailing his team’s chances.
“This world loves anything new,” Durant told Yahoo. “We’ve been here for so long. But we haven’t won a title. That’s the thing. Everybody loves the new guy, the new team. We’ve just been consistent. We’ve had some tough years, injury-wise. Other than that, we’ve always been here. We’re always considered one of the top teams in the league and we’re always going to continue to work like we’re one of the top teams in the league and strive for that greatness.”
Perhaps feeling a bit disrespected, Durant and the Thunder shouldn’t be overlooked this year.
Momentum is everything in the postseason, and hot starts mean nothing. If Oklahoma City can generate some positive energy for the final stretch, there is no doubt this team has the talent to compete with the top teams in the West. Durant and Russell Westbrook are lethal scorers who can light up opponents on any given night.
That said, when all three teams are at full strength the Thunder would certainly be rated by most sane fans as the third-best team on paper. This means it’s going to take some special circumstances for this team to come out of the Western Conference any time soon.