OAKLAND -- Professional athletes often claim not to read newspapers or listen to sports-talk radio or watch sports debate shows on TV.
Kevin Durant made no such insistence Friday.
He's aware that the burgeoning narrative around the Warriors has commentators wondering if they’re coping with routine concerns or issues serious enough to derail their quest for a three-peat.
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“Those people don’t get basketball, really,” Durant said after practice. “They don’t understand what goes in the facility or with the team. They’ve never been a part of it. It’s just their job. And it’s propaganda. That’s what their bosses are telling them to talk about.
“So they’re going to give their best perspective and opinions, and we’re just going to play the game.”
The Warriors have been under the microscope for three years, but the microscopes have been multiplying since the infamous Nov. 12 squabble between Durant and Draymond Green in Los Angeles. The team is 9-9 since then, though Stephen Curry missed nine of those games and Green missed 13.
And then there are the last four games. The Warriors were blown out at home by the Toronto Raptors, had to generate two comebacks to beat the Kings in Sacramento, handled the weakened Memphis Grizzlies at Oracle Arena, and lost to the Jazz on Wednesday night in Utah.
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With a 21-11 record, the Warriors are five games off their pace of last season, six off the pace of 2016-17 and nine games behind their 30-2 record of the 2015-16 campaign.
“We’ve struggled here and there, spurts throughout a game,” Durant said. “It’s just about putting a full 48 together. And I think we’re on our way there.”