NBA: Can the Oklahoma City Thunder Take Down the Golden State Warriors?
The Golden State Warriors look unstoppable this year. At 44-4, Stephen Curry and the Warriors are chasing Michael Jordan's '96 Chicago Bulls for the most wins in a single season in NBA history. The San Antonio Spurs had their chance last week, but they were embarrassed, 120-90.
That's not to say that the Spurs can't get revenge come playoff time, but maybe the third place Oklahoma City Thunder make for a better matchup to take down the Warriors in the postseason. We'll have a little glance of that matchup this Saturday when the Warriors and Thunder square off in California.
The biggest factor could very well be point guard. As all-time great as Tony Parker is, can he really contain Curry for four quarters? He obviously doesn't have the same offensive explosion and scoring capabilities as Russell Westbrook does. Westbrook is a huge "hit or miss" type of player because of the way he plays. Some nights Westbrook looks like Magic Johnson with his pin-point passing and incredible layups, but other nights he shoots far too often and it hurts the Thunder. Westbrook against Curry is must watch basketball for any NBA fan.
Unfortunately, Manu Ginobili is struggling to regain his form, and that's huge because the Argentine shooting guard has always played a critical role in the Spurs success. Ginobili's scoring is down, and he is averaging a career low 19.6 minutes played per game. Tim Duncan is also dealing with a hip injury, and Gregg Popovich is in no rush to bring him back early.
Still, as lethal a weapon as Westbrook is, it all comes down to Kevin Durant. Durant has been the best scorer since he entered the league, and he could give the Thunder some big issues. Durant has to demand the basketball a lot, and severely outplay Klay Thompson for the Thunder to triumph over the Warriors in a best of seven series. Durant stands 6-foot-9, but he can score from anywhere on the floor. If Durant gets outplayed by Thompson, the Thunder have no chance at eliminating the Warriors in a best of seven series.
The Thunder are currently the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference behind the Warriors and Spurs. Offensively, the Thunder rank second in the league in points scored, so we know they can score. However, defensively, the Thunder rank 17th in points allowed this season. The Thunder can't let the Warriors score at will or this is going to get ugly. You could argue the Thunder have two of the top five players in the game today, and as we all know, the NBA is a superstar driven league.
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