Even the pros get anxious on opening night.
At least that what Kevin Durant says: The Warriors were dealing with "anxiety" before starting the NBA season with a 129-100 home-court thumping at the hands of the Spurs.
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So much for matching Golden State's record-breaking 24-game winning streak to open 2015-16.
Afterward, Durant told reporters that Tuesday's "slap in the face" — remember that expression — could be beneficial in the long run.
"It was the first game at home, a lot of energy in the building before the game, so guys might have been a little tense — but that is NBA basketball," Durant said. "I think we kind of calmed down a bit at the start of the second half, but they were already ahead and we can't wait a half to play good basketball. It is a matter of getting better and learning from it, and we will be fine.
"Everybody in the first game wants to do well and you are anxious to play nicely.
"It is part of being in the NBA. I was excited to play and sometimes you can be overly excited. I had to calm down at the start of the second quarter and the game went on, but other than that it was another game, Game 1, and you can't win a championship right now so we wouldn't have celebrated if we won the game anyway."
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Forward Draymond Green sees no reason to be concerned by an immediate setback this time around.
"At the end of the day, it is one basketball game, whether we lost by one, 30 or 40, it is still one game," Green said. "We know we have some things to clean up and we will lock in and clean those things up, but I am not going to make more of the situation than it is or compare it to last year because it is a completely different team. I didn't come into the season saying we needed to try and match the record at this point of the season."
Steph Curry, who scored 26 points, agreed with Durant's wake-up call assessment (via ESPN): "It's a nice little slap in the face."
For trivia buffs, there is a noteworthy sidelight to the 29-point opening loss: According to statistics provicer Elias, only one NBA team has ever lost an opener by 20 or more points and bounced back to win the NBA title. That was the St. Louis Hawks, who were blown out by Bill Russell's Celtics on opening night in 1957 but beat the Celtics later that year in the NBA Finals.