Russ Responds To Recent Durant Remarks
By Randy Renner, Senior Writer
The more Kevin Durant says about his new teammates at Golden State the more shade he seems to throw on his old teammates in Oklahoma City.
One of his statements this week was brought up to Russell Westbrook this morning after shootaround.
Durant had been asked about the family atmosphere among the Warriors’ players and Durant was quoted as saying “you can feel it when you walk through the door I feel really grateful to play for a team like that, to play with a bunch of players who are selfless and enjoy the game in its purest form.”
Russ’ reaction?
“That’s cute man, it’s cute. But my job is to worry about what’s goin’ on here and we’re gonna worry about all the selfish guys we got over here apparently. So we’re gonna figure that out.”
Maybe it’s an intentional slap from Durant, maybe it’s not, whatever it is Westbrook is growing tired of it. Tired of seeing it and tired of hearing it and tired of being asked about it.
“I don’t care (if it was an intentional shot). To me it doesn’t matter. My job is to worry about here. Honestly I’m really getting tired of talking about it.”
And then he half joked (or maybe he was all the way serious) that he didn’t plan to answer any more questions about something Durant says.
That’s probably the best move really, otherwise this stuff gets batted back and forth all season.
Injury Update
Thunder head coach Billy Donovan, as is his custom, did not speak with reporters after shootaround so the playing status of Steven Adams and Andre Roberson is not clear going into tonight’s game in Tulsa against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Adams aggravated his sprained right ankle toward the end of Wednesday’s practice but was seen walking around without any obvious trouble. Roberson appeared to be at full speed working on some shooting drills when reporters were allowed in. He was held out of Tuesday’s game in Dallas with a sore knee.
Both players will probably be game time decisions but don’t be surprised if both end up sitting this game out too.
Westbrook Unsure Of Minutes
Westbrook’s participation in the first three games of the preseason has been limited to between 20 and 22 minutes. He’s tended to play all of the first quarter and most of the third but not at all in the second and fourth. As to what the plan is tonight?
“I’m not sure, I’ll have to talk to the coach and we’ll figure it out.”
As to what Westbrook would like to see from himself and his teammates tonight?
“Just more consistency, on both sides...and WIN. We wanna win games regardless of who’s on the court.”
Tipoff is set for 7:10 inside Tulsa’s BOK Center. There is no TV bout you can see a live video stream of the game on the Thunder’s team website.