Takeaways from Warriors' Demoralizing Loss to Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder (11-1) showed why they are in a different tier than the Golden State Warriors (6-6) with a 126-102 win Tuesday.

A 23-5 Thunder run spanning the first and second quarters essentially ended the game.

Stephen Curry struggled in his return from a three-game absence, finishing with 11 points. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander poured in 28 points in 28 minutes.

Warriors Frontcourt Dominated

It has not been a banner month for Draymond Green. The one-time Defensive Player of the Year has had at least three turnovers in all of his five appearances in November.

That included Tuesday, in which he had three turnovers to go along with just three points, four assists and two rebounds. He was a minus-21.

Quinten Post also struggled with six points on 2-of-6 shooting, and Trayce Jackson-Davis was totally overmatched. But the the bigger issue was the defensive end.

Chet Holmgren made all nine of his field-goal attempts en route to 23 points. Isaiah Hartenstein had eight points and seven rebounds, and to add insult to insult, Jaylin Williams came off the bench with nine points on four shots in the first half.

The bigger-picture issue is the Warriors have no answer for Holmgren. The 23-year-old is only getting better.

The Warriors Need Much More from Steph

Curry entered Tuesday having missed the last three games with an illness. Perhaps his conditioning wasn't up to usual standards, but whatever the reason, he had a bad game.

In 20 minutes, Curry had 11 points on 13 shots (4-of-13), one rebound, zero assists, one turnover and five fouls, including a back-breaking landing zone flagrant foul on an Isaiah Joe deep three right before the first quarter ended. He was a minus-23.

In Curry's last six games, he's shot under 50 percent all six times. He's had over four assists just once in that stretch.

To put it simply, the Warriors need their superstar to play like a superstar.

Moody Improves Case to Start

Lost in an abysmal game was another solid two-way performance from Moses Moody.

The fifth-year guard had several impressive reps against SGA and had an impressive transition block on Alex Caruso. He had 10 points, and that didn't include a very difficult three that was waved off for being released 0.1 after shot clock expired.

I wrote earlier today that the starting lineup should be Curry, Butler, Kuminga, Green and Post, and I stand by that for now. The starting lineup got great looks in the first quarter and was frankly the least of the team's problems.

But if Moody is the team's best perimeter defender, it makes sense to have him match the minutes of opposing stars.

Jonathan Kuminga also had a bounce-back performance, doing nothing to suggest he should be demoted.

Ultimately, who plays the first four or five minutes isn't nearly as important as this team figuring out to play high-level basketball for the full 48. At the least, Moody continues to prove he should play more.