Thunder hasn't perfected playing up to its standard

“We got a good chance to be in every game if we play hard, play defense and play together. That's the ingredient for us. We just got to keep plugging away every single day,” Durant said before taking on the league-worst Washington Wizards. “We can lose to any team in the league, so we got to be prepared and not take these guys lightly.”

Three hours later the unthinkable happened.

The Thunder suffered a two-point loss to the Wizards largely because it took them lightly. If anyone assumed Durant's message before the game was nothing more than a cliché, the embarrassing loss validated his pregame sentiments.

“We can be beat by anybody,” Durant said again after the defeat. “And everybody's going to bring their best against us, man. No matter who we play, they want to beat us. We just can't be too relaxed.”

It took a loss to the worst team in basketball to reinforce that to the league's best team.

What the setback also proved is that the Thunder, regardless of its record and superior talent, still isn't quite capable of consistently playing up to its standard. Durant labeled that challenge the team's toughest this season as it seeks to return to the NBA Finals.

“No matter who we're playing, we know what we have to do,” Durant said. “We have to hold teams under 43 percent. We have to out-rebound them. We have to get 20 assists.

“Playing up to our standard is tough to do every night. But we set a high standard here, and every guy coming in has to know what we're building for.”

A part of what made Monday's loss so shocking is how it was so different from the Thunder's track record this season in games which it has been the heavy favorite. Oklahoma City has had two blowout wins at New Orleans, a thrashing of Toronto, cakewalks against Cleveland and Charlotte and sound victories over Sacramento and Phoenix.