Golden State Warriors

Oklahoma City Thunder: Warriors are the standard in the West

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:59 p.m. ET

Fansided, Albert Dadson/FanSided via Hoops Habit

November 3, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) shoots a technical foul shot as Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (35) looks on during the second quarter at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The Golden State Warriors swept the Oklahoma City Thunder this season in the season series. If they want to show that they can contend for a championship, beating Durant and the Warriors is key.

The Oklahoma City Thunder were swept by the Golden State Warriors in the season series. The Warriors are seemingly in the Finals every year now, and after a 25-point comeback in their Game 1 win of the Western Conference Finals, they look like they are on their way once again.

The Thunder, if they want to get to the elite level that the Warriors are on, will have to beat the Warriors at least once next year. This will be tough to do but the Warriors have become the standard of excellence when it comes to the Western Conference.

The Thunder have to fix their woes against the Warriors. In the last 11 games against the Dubs they have just one win, which was on Jan. 16, 2015. That means the Thunder haven't beat the Warriors in the regular season in more than two years.

Even when they had Kevin Durant, the team was still not producing wins against the Warriors.

You can tell why the Thunder lose on paper. They just have never had enough offensive firepower against the Warriors.

In those 11 games Golden State scored more than 100 10 times. The only time they didn't score more than 100 was Nov. 23, 2014, and the score was still 91-86 in favor of the Warriors.

The Thunder this offseason have to focus on getting more offensive production through free agency or the draft.

Once upon a time the Thunder had three future MVP caliber players on their team in James Harden, Durant and Russell Westbrook. Westbrook is the only one that is left now and now one can only think what could of been.

The Thunder have to get the right players in place to be able to compete with the Warriors. They were able to draft the right players before and they should be able to rebuild the team in an instant during the offseason. Having a player like Westbrook gives the team more flexibility. With the season that he had this year they will be confident that they don't have to overpay players to make the team competitive.

Westbrook has to have a bad taste in his mouth after knowing that Durant came out on top at the end of all four games this year. He wanted at least one game to stick it to Durant but he wasn't able to.

Westbrook has to want to correct the fact that he lost to somebody that betrayed him the way that Durant did and the team has some players from the Durant era still on there that feel the same as Westbrook.

Westbrook still has the opportunity to make a statement by getting the MVP award, which will basically be Westbrook saying to Durant that he doesn't need him to be relevant in the NBA. Also it means that Durant was holding Westbrook back and he was indeed an efficient player.

Getting that MVP trophy means the world to Westbrook because it will be the biggest statement to all of his haters.

The MVP trophy for Westbrook will help Westbrook and the Thunder in ways that nobody outside of their circle will ever be able to fathom.