Oklahoma City Thunder: OKC simply got back to business against Dallas

The Warriors were 30-17 before Tuesday's game at Houston, good for fifth in the Western Conference. They had won four straight and seven of their past nine.

More significantly, the Warriors worked the Thunder in the last meeting between the teams, securing a 104-99 home win that only raised the red flag about the Thunder's defense a little more. At Tuesday's practice, the Thunder took time to shore up the holes that showed in the defense from that disappointing outing.

“The last time we played them, they killed us on their … pin-downs and stuff,” Perkins said. “So we did a lot of practicing on that and getting into guys and knowing how we're going to play it.”

Perkins said the team needs to be more physical.

Durant said the team needs to just play harder.

Brooks, apparently, said enough is enough. And on Monday, he again gave his guys the blueprint on how to be better.

“Sometimes we have a tendency to relax and just to rely on our offense,” Perkins said. “We just got to make sure that we know that we're a defensive team first. We got to come out and play hard and play with a lot of energy no matter who we play.”