Sometimes a game has so many outliers that it proves hard to draw conclusions about a team going forward. In many ways, Sunday’s 100-94 win for the Warriors against Oklahoma City fits this bill.

Two of Keith Smart’s biggest priorities at the start of this season were rebounding and turnover differential.

In one game, the Warriors showed exactly what huge advantages in both of those categories can do. In the first half, Oklahoma City had exactly one more total rebound than Golden State had only on the offensive end. Over the course of the full game, the Warriors out-boarded the Thunder by 15 and a whopping 20-2 on the offensive glass.

The margins were just as impressive in terms of turnovers, as the Warriors had eight compared with Oklahoma City’s 20.

What’s more, Golden State had 28 assists on 43 buckets while the Thunder had 15 dimes on 31 hoops.

While those stats rattled off in sequence may seem a little abstract and hollow, they made the difference in the game. What rebounding and turnover differential do is provide a team with more scoring opportunities than their opponents. The Warriors needed every single one of these extra touches because the Thunder out-shot them by almost 10% from the field and made almost three times more free throws (24) than Golden State attempted (9).

What bridged the gap was that the Warriors had an eye-popping forty more shots from the field.

After the game, Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry both talked about how important the turnover margin was, noting that the team’s recent success coincides with both of them doing a better job keeping better hold of possession. They both also talked about how big the rebounding margin was in deciding the game on both the offensive and defensive ends. The impact of both was also compounded by the fact that Oklahoma City was coming off of a back-to-back, though that point aroused some ire from Smart who felt that discussing that too much cheapened a meaningful win.

Now, it is worth considering that games with discrepancies like this do not come along very often (in fact, Oklahoma City tied the record for the lowest offensive rebound total in history against Golden State), much less both the rebounding and turnover margins falling that way in the same game. What gives the game greater meaning than just two gigantic outliers is the fact that each is the product of a renewed effort by the coaching staff that is reflected both in the talent on roster and in the players themselves. While it makes no sense that players should need extra motivation to rebound (something Smart talked about postgame), hopefully the results in the win column show the entire team what taking care of the ball and out-hustling the other team can do.

Other notes:

• Stephen Curry had a very strong game, his second in two years against Russell Westbrook and the Thunder. Beyond the garish 13 assists to 0 turnovers, Curry did an excellent job creating for himself and others without making some of the mistakes that have taken a luster off of his season. After the game, Ellis said it was Curry’s best performance of this season, and I agree completely.

• While some shaky calls went in each direction, two of the offensive foul calls against Russell Westbrook were dubious at best. Westbrook getting his second foul with 9 minutes remaining in the first quarter changed the game at the outset and helped Golden State get the momentum and the margin necessary to take the game.

• It has been a long time since I saw a player make a positive impact without scoring a single point quite like Ekpe Udoh. He did a strong job changing shots and boarding (he had four rebounds, all on the offensive side) without turning the ball over or committing fouls. Few teams have the firepower to get a positive net contribution from a non-scorer over 27 minutes, but the Warriors and Udoh made it work.

• For the second time this week, Dorell Wright drew an awfully tough assignment, this time in the form of superstar Kevin Durant. Like Carmelo Anthony before him, Durant ended up with a decent statistical night which was largely the product of making tough shots over good defense. Wright deserves credit for making the Durantula work so hard for his points in another strong effort against a star small forward and a playoff opponent.