Throughout the Golden St Warriors historic 73 win season they routinely made the absurd appear routine. No game illustrated that more perfectly than Saturday February 27th in Oklahoma City. Down by 10 after one quarter, down by 12 in the fourth, down by four with 14 seconds left. Steph Curry 40 footer at the buzzer in overtime. Game Over! We’ve all seen the highlight over and over again and it undeniably became the lasting image of the NBA regular season. And now here we are almost three months later Warriors vs the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. Let’s rock!
The Thunder enter this series with sky high confidence and the belief that they are a different team now. It’d be hard to argue with them. After coughing up fourth quarter leads all season long Oklahoma City was able to stare down those demons and the fact that they did it against San Antonio was remarkable. The Golden St Warriors however are an entirely different animal.
At the start tonight I’m assuming Roberson will guard Curry. He and Waiters both did a great job on Leonard in the previous series but Curry presents a whole different set of challenges. Against Kawhi, Roberson and Waiters were able to use their physical strength to push Kawhi out further on the floor and always get a solid contest. For the most part they also knew where he’d be on the floor. Isolated on the wing or in the mid post area. Steph will be in constant motion coming off multiple screens and in multiple pick n rolls. He also will look to hunt 3’s in transition. He’s a handful no matter how ya slice it and all five guys for the Thunder will have to know where he is at all times. Billy Donovan mostly used Waiters to close games throughout San Antonio series if Roberson shows during the course of the game that he’s clearly the better option to guard Curry what will Billy D decide. My guess is you have to go offense and it will still probably be Dion but if Roberson makes shots like he did in Game six that could change things.
For all the attention Steph gets, and granted he should, did anyone notice the series Klay Thompson just had. He averaged 31 and shot 50% from three point range all while hounding Damian Lillard on the other end into 36% from the field. He was brilliant and it mostly went unnoticed. Klay will be the primary defender on Russell Westbrook the majority of the time and that matchup is going to be key. I love Westbrook, I’ve been defending him for years but I’m also aware that at times some of the criticism is fair. For all the good he did against the Spurs he still only shot 37% from the field and at times was erratic with the ball. That won’t cut it against the Warriors. It’ll have to be super-efficient low turnover Russ for the Thunder to have a chance.
The Thunder were +45 on the glass in the San Antonio series and a lot of that was because of the closing lineup that featured Steven Adams and Enes Kanter. The Golden St death lineup consisting of Curry, Klay, Barnes, Iguodala and Draymond at center has been torching the league for two years now. So what happens here? Is Donovan forced to go small or are the Warriors being so greatly eviscerated on the glass that they have to go back to a more traditional lineup? The X’s and O’s and adjustments from game to game will be fascinating but which team is able dictate the terms late in games will obviously go a long way.
Barnes or Draymond will get the KD assignment at the start but in the fourth when Golden St goes small it will be Andre Iguodala. Again the Warriors just have so many options. Durant will get his obviously and he may even win the Thunder a game but over course of the series the Warriors will be able to make things difficult for him and wear him down with multiple bodies.
I’m a huge Russell Westbrook fan and it would be awesome to watch him and Durant finally win a title together. It may even happen someday. Not this year. Oklahoma City still has major issues offensively late in games. They beat the Spurs because they defended like crazy but I think some are missing the point that Golden St will much be more difficult to defend and that the Warriors have more and better options to deal with Durant and Westbrook. One example right away it is Steven Adams. He shot 70% from the field in the Spurs series much of it coming on pick and roll with Westbrook with him rolling hard to the rim for uncontested dunks. That’s an easy switch for Golden St. That won’t be there. Whether it’s Iguodala or Livingston or Barbosa or Speights or Ezeli (who could play an even bigger role with Bogut hobbled) the Warriors simply have too many options. They put guys in the game and they all contribute. They can play big, they can play small, fast or slow it doesn’t matter. They have a counter for everything you throw at them. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant are two top five players, they are not enough to deal with this machine that Golden St has become.
People revere San Antonio and so you hear rumblings of people convincing themselves now that the Thunder can beat the Warriors. Don’t make that mistake. The Spurs aren’t the Warriors, they never were.
I can’t wait for this series it’s going to be a blast and maybe the Thunder win two games but I'll call it Golden St in five
Danny Grugan is a contributor for Sixerdelphia.com
