Warriors are going to take advantage of Kanter's poor defense and Roberson's poor offense. Run PnR with Kanter's man every way down or attack his poor rim protecting. Put Steph on Roberson where he can double off him too. Warriors also have their killer small lineup that OKC can't match up with. Ibaka isn't the star we all thought he could be and Adams/Kanter has been good for them but too slow to keep up.
The scary thing is Russell and K.D. are not going to start off as poorly as they did like this for the rest of the series. The Thunder's big 2 didn't even play good and they have the lead. Also the Warriors tend to get sloppy and flashy with the ball a lot which costs them points. I say Thunder in 6 or 7.
Lol really? Durant got smacked across the face in the last two minutes. Golden State didn't deserve to win. OKC outplayed them by staying big. They took away the driving lanes and they didn't allow Steph to get free.
And that's my worry. If the Warriors make it to the finals. Full confidence they'll beat the cavs. But if okc wins it. I see Cleveland getting its first title.
I don't understand why people just assume Cleveland will beat OKC. The regular season means nothing. That's showed it self tonight. LeBron beat them like five years ago who cares? They're clearly a different team then they were then. Westbrook is so much more mature and a complete player. Durant even on a big night shows why he's one of the most clutch players in basketball. I'm much more impressed with OKC than Cleveland because of simply competition. A 67 win team and beating the best team in history tonight versus some scrub East teams.
You named one missed call. If you watched the game closely, not allowing Steph to get free was a result of refs allowing OKC to hold onto his arms and jersey as he tried to get free. It reminded me of this: Then, there was that blatant Westbrook travel that the entire stadium was howling about that the refs didn't call. Or, the countless travels by Steven Adams, which also caused the entire stadium to moan because of the missed call. Or, the putback foul that wasn't awarded 2 free throws. Teams have been complaining about the favoritism that OKC has been getting for years. Even when Harden left, he dragged that favoritism with him to Houston. As a guy who was and is a fan of Durant and Westbrook, It's mind boggling how OKC consistently gets the positive end of these calls at the end of the game. During the Spurs series, people kept saying, "Oh, well, yea, these calls were bad, but the Spurs shouldn't have put themselves in that position". I never understood that logic. How about we try to get a level playing field? The NBA came out saying that the refs failed numerous times in that series. I expect them to do the same for this game.
I like how the NBA comes out and calls out the officials on their mistakes but the refs really do need to be fixed in this league. They have too much power and will often miss obvious calls, call phantom fouls and show favoritism.
Impressive game by OKC. They showed a lot of heart coming back from double digits for nearly three whole quarters. Sloppy sloppy play by GS in the fourth. Curry got cute with ball too much and did not play like a 2 time MVP down the stretch at all. Way too many turnovers by him and the whole team in the second half. Other than Westbrook's magnificent third quarter, jazzygirl is right, OKC didn't even seem to bring their A game. And Durant was pretty horrible down the stretch (he was 0 for 8 at one point in the fourth quarter) - but still they pulled it out. GS was acting like they had this won at the half and they didn't dig very deeply, especially Curry. He's going to have to show a lot more than this or OKC will win this. I have to say I was surprised and a bit disappointed by GS's attitude. OKC wanted it more, at least tonight. The Warriors are the better team, but they will have to play like it to come out of this series.
Saw this comment somewhere else: Steve Kerr during timeouts be like "Damn this team too healthy for us" and Skip Bayless gets roasted: