There’s also the tantalizing prospect of all those pick-and-roll combinations, which could help Westbrook, Durant, and shooters like Waiters and Ibaka get free after help drifts over to the rollman. Kanter and Adams together (the fourth- and fifth-highest scoring players on the team in this postseason), plus Ibaka roaming around the perimeter, could cause serious problems for the Warriors, especially if Andrew Bogut can’t suit up and Green finds himself in foul trouble thanks to the surplus of contact down low. The Cavs went small as a last resort and realized they couldn’t hang with the Warriors’ death line-up that features Green at the center position. His scoring finally went up after two terrible games, but by the time he got rolling, it was too late. Thompson is still struggling to expand his offensive range, and Mozgov needed to have space to work in the post, which rendered Thompson borderline useless. That meant the Cavs had to wave goodbye to decent floor spacing and the possibility of deeper post-up mismatches with the lanky Love against undersized front court players like Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes. In the 2015 NBA finals, the Cavaliers were forced to play Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson together thanks to Kevin Love’s season-ending shoulder injury. The Thunder don’t have the perimeter firepower to compete with the Warriors in a shootout, so what can they do? Are the OKC bigs ever going to be able to play together?Įnes Kanter and Adams should never play in the same line-up. He’s averaging 3.4 three-point attempts per game this postseason, the next closest shooter is Waiters with 3.1, then Randy Foye with 2.2. Of his 91 playoff field goal attempts, 37 of them are three-pointers. He shot 32.6% from beyond the three-point line in the regular season, but his average has ballooned to 54% in the playoffs. The biggest stat that’s actually gone up from regular season to playoffs is his three-point shooting. In the playoffs, he’s playing the same average number of minutes per game, but his scoring is down to 11.7 points and rebounds are at 5.3. Ibaka had a middling regular season, averaging 12.6 points-per-game and 6.8 rebounds in 32.1 minutes. The key to this series for OKC is Serge Ibaka, who was always meant to be the third amigo for that team, but has struggled to live up to that reputation. We’ll get to Steven Adams later, and the less I think about Andre Roberson, the better. I surrendered my passport to Waiters Island a long time ago and don’t expect more than one whistle-to-whistle good performance from him. But what any championship team really needs is a third elite scorer to get rolling to power the second unit or to ease the defensive pressure on the superstars. It goes without saying that Durant and Westbrook have to play the series of their lives to get through the reigning champs. Who has to get hot for the Thunder to win? Answering these questions will go a long way toward deciding who walks out with this weird trophy that looks like it’s awarded to a rec league team in Syracuse, New York. Legacies are on the line and the movements of this summer’s biggest free agent target could be decided very soon. What’s at stake for the Warriors and Thunder goes beyond simply who wins four games first. This series promises to be an uptempo, athletic affair with some of the game’s most dynamic scorers going head-to-head. When you remember that Durant and Westbrook play next to Dion Waiters, then maybe their indulgences can be forgiven. On the other side of the court, the Oklahoma City Thunder are fronted by another dynamic duo in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, players routinely criticized for relying on dull hero-ball tactics and being unwilling to get their team-mates involved. The Warriors are led by jovial, unselfish three-point maestro Steph Curry and his loveable sidekick, Klay Thompson - defending NBA champions and unquestioned, unchallenged masters of terrible facial hair. The Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder are mirror universe versions of each other. The 2016 Western Conference finals start on Monday night, and the entirety of NBA fandom - save for a few hundred thousand surly Spurs fans still clutching their Tim Duncan jerseys as though they might float away at any moment - is eagerly anticipating the first playoff meeting between two teams that define the modern league.
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