Golden State’s Warriors are in town tonight for the tiebreaker in this season’s three game regular season series with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The stubborn Denver Nuggets haven’t gone away and are still within striking range of the iconic Warriors. One would think the Warriors will be in town with a reason to play with some focus and meaning tonight inside the Peake.
With the No. 5 seeded Thunder…who really knows which team will show up on a given night, much less which team will start a half with some reason to play hard and with a sense of purpose.
Like all of Billy Donovan’s teams in OKC minus the Oscar Robertson triple double trail season–the Thunder under Donovan never really seem all that concerned with end results or when the season will end.
This Thunder team and organization seem to be in their own provincial world and apparently believe they’ve been relevant since Kevin Durant’s departure to go play on a real championship contender in Oakland.
But the truth is the truth. Since Durant’s departure to win rings and Finals MVP trophies the Thunder have yet to exceed 48 wins in a regular season or to win a single first round playoff series. In playoff basketball–the Thunder without Durant are an abysmal 3-8 in post season play.
But tonight in OKC should be fun as it’s the ABC Saturday Night Game of the Week pitting the Warriors vs. the Thunder.
I would guess Thunder fandom will still be booing Durant in a robust manner for going to play for a winner. Thunder zealots will have their Little Nick Gallo Sippy Cups in hand and overlook a complete and absolute meltdown Thursday night in Indianapolis as the Thunder choked on a nineteen point lead against the Pacers. These Warriors aren’t the Pacers. These Warriors are iconic.
I haven’t looked at my Vegas site yet, but I’d pick the game at Golden State -2.5 or so. It should be a great game. It feels like two seasons ago when Dennis Schroder scored 32 points against the Warriors back in November to propel the Thunder to a win over the Dubs. One would think this will be one of Little Nick Gallos keys to a Thunder win tonight…namely, Dennis Schroder needs to show up tonight inside the Peake.
I love the ABC games. I won’t for a second listen to the Fox telecast other than to catch some of Antonio Daniels in the post game breakdown.
As far as who wins tonight—all I will say is that when it matters the Warriors usually show up to play and surprisingly this game still matters for the Warriors to maintain their lead in the standings over the Nuggets.
How I feel about KD. I’m over the hurt.