Thunder-Warriors Preview: Career-Defining Moment For OKC Stars In Game 7

On second thought, maybe the Thunder shouldn’t have gone to Camelot. It is a silly place.

Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and co. face their first “must-win” game of the season tonight. While losing at home in a close-out game is massively dejecting to Thunder fans, most would’ve gladly taken a winner-take-all-one-game chance to knock out the defending champs. Home or away.

It will be a daunting task to win in Oracle tonight, no doubt, but only nine teams in NBA history have been able to overcome a 3-1 series deficit as the Warriors are attempting to do.

“If we walk in here like it’s a funeral then we already lost,” said Thunder star Kevin Durant. “Nobody walked in like that. We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves. We’re upset we lost but we let that go and get ready for Game 7.”

Oklahoma City finished the final 4:40 of Game 6 going 1-for-5 with six turnovers while Golden State hit 5-of-8 and didn’t turn it over in crunch time. That’s peak mid-season Thunder and that can’t happen again.

Durant and Westbrook combined for a 3-for-14 effort in the fourth quarter while the Warriors shot 11-of-19 and grabbed five offensive rebounds. Can’t happen again.

Game 7 feels like a career-defining moment for OKC’s two stars. Losing a series after being up 3-1 will not be forgotten any easier than going to the Finals will be remembered.

The Thunder will get their shot tonight at the mercy of officials Danny Crawford, Mike Callahan and Jason Phillips.