Golden State Warriors 111-107 Oklahoma City Thunder: 5 Talking Points

The Golden State Warriors traveled to the Chesapeake Energy Arena in downtown Oklahoma City on Tuesday night to play out the final game of their regular season four-game series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Russell Westbrook and Co. had the chance of gaining an upper hand over Kevin Durant led Warriors as the hosts held a 2-1 advantage.

Steve Kerr's team, however, had other plans as they competed in a grueling fashion against the Thunder, with a hostile home crowd piling up the pressure on the defending champions.

Despite trailing the Thunder at the end of the first quarter, Golden State, playing without Stephen Curry, turned things around and won the game 111-107, tying the season series in the process. Here are the major talking points from the game.

#5 Hard basketball from the get-go

Golden State Warriors v Oklahoma City Thunder — The game got off to a fiery start

If you thought that the Golden State Warriors would take this game lightly because of their confirmed playoffs status, you were wrong. The very instant that the game started, both teams played hard basketball.

There was a lot of energy on both offense and defense, shots were being contested, pick and roll plays were on, and there was tremendous hustle from all the players on the court. The game was extremely physical too, with lots of contact dictating the scheme of things on either end of the court.

In fact, four players had already accumulated two fouls each in the first quarter itself: Klay Thompson and Nick Young for the Warriors; Steven Adams and Paul George for the Thunder.

The electrifying start to the game coupled with the involvement of the crowd led to a playoffs-like atmosphere in the building.

#4 Ball movement the key for the Warriors

Draymond Green was GSW's assist leader on the night with 8 times to his name — Draymond Green was GSW's assist leader on the night with 8 dimes to his name

The Golden State Warriors once again displayed some impressive ball movement skills as they created a lot of open looks on the night, especially beyond the arc.

The impressive distribution of the ball on the court had the Thunder players unsettled and created cracks in the defense of the home side. The Warriors ended the night with an impressive 27 assists.

On the other hand, the Thunder kept the ball static for far too long and turned the ball over several times as a result of the same. OKC had to settle for tough shots on many occasions and the offense felt really dormant at times, especially in the second quarter where the Thunder managed only 20 points in comparison to Golden State's 33.

OKC finished the night with a meager team total of 13 assists with Mr. Triple Double Russell Westbrook himself managing only 6 of the same, a number far below his season average of over 10 assists per game.

#3 OKC's bench underperforms, yet again

OKC Thunder's bench was thoroughly dominated by the Warriors

In what has been a major recurrence throughout the entire regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder bench failed to trouble the scoresheet yet again. OKC's bench scored a paltry 14 points in comparison to Warriors' 38.

Interestingly, only three Thunder bench players managed to score a point with only two of them managing to score a field goal, namely Jerami Grant and Alex Abrines.

The poor scoring form of the OKC bench has been a huge concern for the team as it puts added pressure on the starters, as seen by the big three of Oklahoma City Thunder all playing over 35 minutes in the game and Westbrook playing 40.

The momentum of the game also shifted in Golden State's favor every time the bench was on the court. Since the beginning of the second quarter, when the Thunder bench took over, the home team have been virtually chasing the game.

The Thunder bench is dead last in the league in terms of scoring, contributing only 26.1 points per game. If OKC plans on having a deep playoffs run, this statistic needs to improve.

#2 Russell Westbrook has a good shooting night but the rest of the team falters

The reigning MVP Westbrook had one of those brilliant shooting nights as he scored 44 points with 15 off 26 shooting in the game. However, the rest of the Thunder roster shot poorly with the team scoring at a poor 37.6 percent efficiency in comparison to Golden State's 49.4 percent shooting from the field.

Paul George continued his dreadful shooting form he has endured since the All-Star break and shot a meager 5 off 19 from the field.

Carmelo Anthony was no better as he scored just 12 points during his 32-minute outing. The former Syracuse forward managed to make only four of his shots at 25 percent shooting accuracy from the field.

Oklahoma City Thunder have not had a great shooting year this time around as they have managed to record only 43.2 percent shooting in the league, which is the sixth-worst in the NBA this year.

#1 OKC's inconsistent patch continues

The only consistent thing about Oklahoma City Thunder this time around is perhaps their inconsistency throughout this season.

OKC started the season with a poor 8-12 record. In January, the Thunder recorded their best winning streak this season of eight consecutive victories. However, they followed it up with four back-to-back losses.

They again recorded a six-game winning streak in March. However, they've gone 2-5 since the streak ended via a choking loss to the Boston Celtics, including a three-game losing streak.

This is very worrisome for the Thunder as far as playing a seven-game series is concerned. Their conference record of 26-24 makes them very much beatable by any team in the postseason.