The poor spacing on the perimeter undoubtedly limited Davis and Westbrook's offense in the paint. It also hampered Chen Xi's individual offense and his ability to break through defenses with explosive one-on-one scoring, as the Warriors smothered him with relentless help defense.
On top of that, the Golden State Warriors had been shooting extremely well in the first quarter. The more they played, the better they got, and the more fired up they became.
Meanwhile, Westbrook had been a little off for the Thunder, failing to keep his turnovers under control and handing the opposition a full three "assists" in a single quarter.
That had done the team no small amount of damage...
Under the circumstances, the Thunder had naturally been powerless to avoid falling into a huge hole in the first quarter.
By the end of the first quarter, the Golden State Warriors had taken a massive 14-point lead over the Thunder, 37–23.
What was even more worrying for Thunder fans thousands of miles away was that Oklahoma couldn't quickly find its rhythm when the second quarter began.
Although Alexander, who had come off the bench, and Chen Xi, who returned to the game with four and a half minutes gone in the second, each hit a three-pointer in turn, briefly helping the team break out of its predicament,
two three-pointers were simply too little to affect the game as a whole.
Oklahoma's form continued to decline.
By contrast, the Golden State Warriors only grew more formidable.
Aside from Jordan Poole, who couldn't match his performances in the previous two games and missed a few rather "wild" shots, they were displaying the level expected of a Western Conference Finals team in every respect.
And so, by halftime, the score between the two teams had become 68–48.
The gap had