Storyline: I still think Golden State will take OKC and get into the NBA Finals. But the Thunder may make the Western Conference Finals more legendary than expected.
The Western Conference Finals that didn’t happen (photo, sportingnews.com)
All season long NBA fans had been anticipating the Western Conference Finals and a matchup between the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs. It would be the last two NBA champs going head-to-head — with the Warriors 73-win season against the Spurs 67 wins. Kerr vs. Popovich.
The series would have been epic, legendary, an instant classic … except for one problem: the Oklahoma City Thunder crashed the party. OKC dismantled the Spurs with a 4-2 Second Round upset.
And, then, the Thunder continued its impressive roll with a 108-102 Game 1 win over the Warriors.
Consider the implications: the Warrior and Spurs lost a combined three games at home all season! The Thunder walked away with two wins in San Antonio and then strolled into Oakland and grabbed one more, all in the span of a couple weeks.
NBA fans may have lost the Spurs, but they still have the makings of an instant classic with Warriors vs. Thunder.
Steven Adams plays big v. Warriors (photo, complex.com)
The beauty of this series is star power. Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant have three MVPs and Russell Westbrook has been a legit contender for two years now. Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are arguably top-ten NBA players.
Steven Adams’s star is on the rise, too, especially now with his impact on the Spurs’ series and his contributions in Game 1. Andre Iguodala is the reigning Finals MVP.
And, yes, Curry has been the best player for two straight years, but Westbrook was the best player on the court Monday. Westbrook started off 1 for 10 from the field, but then he simply owned the 3rd Quarter.
NBA games may be won in fourth, but OKC stole Game 1 when Westbrook put the team on his back in the third. His 17 pts. in the third–and pure relentlessness pushing the ball on offense–turned a 13-point halftime deficit into only 3-point gap going into the final stanza. His final stat line–27 pts., 12 ast., 6 rebs., 7 stls., and 11-14 from the line–is just so Westbrookian, which is the only way I can describe it.
An intriguing aspect of the Warriors/OKC matchup is about OKC’s big men. Would Adams and Enes Kanter be able to impact this Series the way they did against the Spurs? OKC coach Billy Donovan turned the Spurs series in OKC’s favor when he started playing Adams/Kanter at the same time. The Spurs could not match the size, aggressiveness, and athleticism when those two were on the court together. They lost the rebounding edge badly and, eventually, the series.
Billy Donovan strategic moves are paying off in ’16 NBA Playoffs (photo, newsok.com)
How did the Adams/Kanter combo fair against Golden State? Donovan did not play the duo together much at all (based on matchups), but they each still had impact. While on the court Adams was a game best +19 and he added 16 pts. and 12 rebs. His defense at the rim forced the Warriors into some very difficult lay-ups that they missed. Kanter doesn’t have Adam’s defensive acumen, but he still chipped in 8 pts. and 6 rbs. off the bench. The Warriors starting front court had only nine boards combined.
An ongoing storyline throughout the series will be the size and rebounding of the Thunder against the speed and shooting of the Warriors. The Thunder not only has size, but athleticism to go along with it.
Sometimes we tend to correlate size with plodding big men, but that’s not the case with the Thunder. Besides having an athletic center in Adams, the Thunder play two 6’10 starting forwards, Durant and Serge Ibaka. Westbrook may be the best athlete in the NBA and also one of its best rebounding guards.
To compensate for this athleticism, the Warriors will have to shoot better than they did Monday night. The 2016 Warriors normally shoot 49% from the field and 41% from three, but the team saw those totals drop to 44% and 37%, respectively, against the Thunder. The 4th Quarter was especially bad: the team went a putrid 6 for 23 from the field, including 1 from 9 from deep. Curry was 1 for 6 and Thompson went 0 for 4. The Warriors have won 140 regular-season games and a title over the last two years and the recipe for winning was superior marksmanship. I expect that touch to return in upcoming games.
Courtesy: Latinpost.com
That’s not to say I think Monday was a fluke or that the Warriors will easily regain control once their shooting touch returns. But let’s also recognize the fact that Durant was only 10 for 30 from the field, and he missed a bunch in the fourth as well, hitting only 3 for 12 shots. Both teams have room for improvement and the coaches will make some tweaks moving forward. Game 1 was just the start and I expect the series to get even more intriguing as it goes on.
The Warriors haven’t really been challenged all year. The last time we saw them in crisis mode was when they were down 2-1 in last year’s NBA Finals. They responded with a 4-2 series win and NBA Championship.
Will they respond against the Thunder? I’d still lean towards yes, but I love that it’s even a question. It didn’t turn out to be the Series we all predicted, but the Thunder may make the Western Conference Finals even more legendary than expected.
