Expert
The Oklahoma City Thunder will look to overcome a few stumbling blocks in recent times and make an emphatic statement when they take on the best team in the NBA – The Golden State Warriors. Join The Roar from 12:30pm (AEDT) for live scores and coverage.
The Thunder despite sitting third in the Eastern Conference have really seen their gap to the leading Warriors and second placed Spurs open up over the last few games. Having lost three of their last four will have the Thunder worried their form is not quite up to where it needs to be as we get towards the pointy end of the season.
What is even more concerning from a Thunder point of view is that the losses, coming against the Indiana Pacers, Cleveland Cavaliers and New Orleans Pelicans are, with the exception of the Cavaliers match, ones they should have won – and won comfortably.
It is hard to give a single reason as to why the Thunder lost all three of those matches, but it could be traced back to not shutting down the opposition’s biggest players. Players in each of those games ran up 20 plus points on the Thunder, and despite a solid offence it made it hard for them to win the game.
Now taking on the Warriors, Stephen Curry is having the season of his life, if that’s even possible after being named MVP last year. He is scoring points left right and centre, and shooting around 50 per cent from behind the three point line – an absolutely incredible stat.
The Thunder’s first goal coming into this match must not be to attack, or shut the Warriors down inside the paint. No, it must be to slow down Curry somehow. If they can do that, then they begin to focus on other areas of the game.
Russell Westbrook will be the key to not only slowing Curry’s offence down, but trying to match Curry with his own offence. Westbrook is averaging 24 points and 10 assists per game thus far, and his combination with Kevin Durant is one of the best in the competition.
For the Warriors, they have now won four in a row and only lost one of their last 16 matches. Stephen Curry has broken the record for most consecutive games with a three pointer and they demoralised the Orlando Magic in their last match, with a 16-point win.
The teams have only met once this season, with the Warriors taking that at home by eight.
Prediction
The Thunder just don’t have the form to go with Curry and the Warriors in this one. The Warriors have so much depth, but a Westbrook and Durant double could keep things very close.
Warriors by 2.
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