Life is going to be different without Kevin Durant for the Golden State Warriors’ chief rival.
It’s only the preseason, so take this for whatever it’s worth, but the Oklahoma City Thunder were defeated in overtime by Rael Madrid 143-137.
The good news for the Thunder is that is that new shooting guard Victor Oladipo had 34 points and 5 assists. Also, Russell Westbrook played just 22 minutes, totaling 18 points.
The bad news is that nobody is expecting the team to push the Warriors to seven games again in the Western Conference Finals. Never say never with Russell Westbrook — who is the favorite to win the 2016-17 MVP award — but Oladipo alone won’t be enough to offset the loss of Durant.
By the way, the Warriors did lose their preseason opener on Saturday to the Toronto Raptors 97-93. Klay Thompson was the leading scorer with 16 points and Patrick McCaw led the team in minutes with 22.
The Thunder will continue their tour of Spain later in the week against Barcelona.