Apparently, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors had a lot taken out of them in their head-to-head matchup on Saturday night such that they had little left on Monday.
Both teams got drubbed — the Thunder by the red-hot Washington Wizards and the Warriors by the Denver Nuggets.
Thunder struck
The Thunder had one of the most remarkable runs of futility, missing 24 consecutive shots in one stretch of Monday’s loss. In that time, the Thunder were outscored 32-5. Russell Westbrook was 0-of-9 and the Thunder shot 0-of-9 off Westbrook passes. They went 0-of-11 inside the paint.
Elias Sports Bureau research indicates that the 24 straight missed shots is the longest miss streak in the past 20 seasons.
The Thunder were outscored by 36 points with Westbrook on the court, the worst plus-minus of his career. It was the second time in 11 meetings that Westbrook lost a head-to-head matchup with Wizards point guard John Wall.
The Thunder’s five starters combined to shoot 27 percent from the field (12-of-45), including 0-of-13 from 3-point range. The Wizards’ starting five shot 61 percent (31-of-51), 12-of-17 on 3-pointers.
Warriors anything but Golden
If we had told you before the Warriors-Nuggets game that one team was going to make 24 of 40 3-pointers and another was going to make 8 of 32, you almost certainly would have predicted the Warriors to be on the winning end of that.
But on Monday night, it was not to be. It was the Nuggets who tied the Houston Rockets’ record for 3-pointers in a game (set earlier this season against the New Orleans Pelicans) and the Warriors who endured an excruciating 22-point loss. The Warriors did have the excuse of being without Klay Thompson due to injury.
Nuggets forward Nikola Jokic continued his great run, with his second triple-double in 11 days (and in-between, he had a 40-point game). The Nuggets also dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Warriors, 55-27. The 27 rebounds were the Warriors fewest since April 9, 2012, also against the Nuggets.
The Warriors were outscored by a season-worst 19 points with Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green on the court together and they made 2 of 16 3-point field goals with that combo on the court.
Curry had one of the worst night’s he has ever had. Not only was he 4-of-18 from the field (a season-low 22 percent), but he allowed the Nuggets to shoot 7-of-9 against him for 18 points. Curry left his man uncontested on four attempts and the player he was guarding made all four shots.
The Warriors’ 48-point deficit in points off 3-pointers is their second-worst such differential in the past 20 seasons. They were outscored by 60 points on 3-pointers by the Rockets on Feb. 5, 2013.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
