Thunder vs. Warriors: Pregame Primer

vs.

Thunder (42-19, 17-11 road) vs. Clippers (54-5, 25-0 home)

TV: TNT/FSOklahoma
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 1300 AM The Buzz Tulsa)
Time: 9:30 PM CST

Team Comparisons (per NBA.com/Stats)

• Offensive Rating: Thunder – 109.9 (2nd), Warriors – 112.4 (1st)
  Defensive Rating: Thunder – 102.7 (13th), Warriors – 100.1 (5th)

Well, that was bad! It was kind of like watching a car accident in slow motion. As soon as the collapse started, you could kind of sense it coming. This team is not in a good place mentally right now. Be it the tragedies that have befellan the organization, the lack of cohesion from the sidelines with the top two assistants being out, or just the fact that the schedule got really hard, the Thunder are not where they should be at this point in the season right now.

Honestly, they are getting there from a basketball stand-point. The bench is playing better with the staggered minutes adjustment Thunder head coach Billy Donovan implemented with Kevin Durant. Russell Westbrook and Durant are both playing prime level basketball. Serge Ibaka seems to be asserting himself more on the boards, averaging 10.2 rebounds in his last 5 games. Randy Foye is slowly finding his niche on this team. And they seem to be better defensively, even if its just in spots.

But mentally…whoo-wee, that’s a different story. It used to be that I wasn’t scared of any deficit because I knew the Thunder had the fight to get back into any game. While I still have that feeling towards deficits, I now cringe whenever we hold a lead. No lead feels safe when it comes to the Thunder. Just look at the various games throughout the season:

• @ Houston on Nov. 2 – Held a 14 point lead with 9:48 left in the 3rd qtr. Entered the 4th qtr. down by 3 and never recovered.
• vs. Sacramento on Dec. 6 – Up by 12 at the start of the 4th qtr, the Thunder eventually found themselves down by 7 with 3 minutes left before putting together a final run and escaping with a victory.
• @ Portland on Jan. 10 – Held a 7 point lead with 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter before a barrage of threes by Damian Lillard sunk the Thunder in defeat.
• vs. Indiana on Feb. 19 – Held a 7 point lead with 2:47 left in the game and ended up losing the game by 3.
• vs. Golden State on Feb. 27 – We remember….very vividly.
• @ Los Angeles Clippers on Mar. 1 – Held a 16 point lead with 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Lost by 5.

This is a mental block the team has to get over. In the past, when the team had defensive anchors like Kendrick Perkins and Thabo Sefolosha out there, the Thunder could protect leads. For all the faults those two players had, they always knew where to be on the defensive end to get that important stop. Now, with Andre Roberson and Steven Adams out there in those positions, the Thunder are struggling in stopping the onslaught of points from teams trying to come back. But I don’t want to single out those two players, who are good defensively. But while Perkins and Sefolosha had the wherewithal to know where they needed to be and where everyone else needed to be, the Thunder defense now continually makes rotational mistakes that can’t be covered up. Call it growing pains, lack of effort because the team thinks their lead in insurmountable, or just plain bad defense, but the lack of defensive execution in late game situation is troubling.

Series History

This is the third and final meeting of the season between the Thunder and the Warriors. Their two games have come down to the wire, with the Warriors eeking out victories in each of the first two meetings. In the first game, the Warriors got out to a 22 point lead, but found themselves in a tied game with 3 minutes left. Eventually, though, the Thunder ran out of steam and ended up losing 116-108. The 2nd meeting has been called one of the best, if not the best, regular season game ever. The Thunder held the lead most of the night, but the Warriors, led by Stephen Curry, found a way to take advantage of various Thunder miscues late in the game to force overtime and eventually win the game on a Curry game-winner from 38 feet out.

The Opponent

The Warriors come into the game with a 54-5 record, having won all of their games at home. The only question for this game is whether Stephen Curry will play. He missed the Warriors’ last game with the sprained ankle he suffered in the Thunder game. By all accounts, he will be ready to play tonight’s game. Andre Iguodala was another player who sat out the Warriors’ last game with a strained hamstring. According to Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle, Iguodala is listed as questionable for the game, but it does not appear to be anything serious. Honestly that’s all I have for this section. This will be the third time we’ve seen this team in the last month. Other than adding Anderson Varejao, they haven’t changed since the first time we met them this season.

3 Big Things

The Thunder need to continue defending the Warriors like they have in the first two meetings. Other than Curry going napalm on the Thunder in the last meeting, the Thunder have done a good job of defending the Warriors, and taking away their first options. They have to continue that tonight and make sure “the others” don’t beat them.

The Thunder need to play a complete game. They played a helluva game for 47 minutes and 40 seconds in their last meeting. But then they came apart at the seams in the final 11 seconds. The Warriors are going to score. And they are going to stay in games. But its concentrating on the little things, late in games, the can be difference in getting this victory.

There comes a point where after beating your head against the wall several times, when you take a step back and get frustrated because there isn’t even a dent in the wall. That’s how the Thunder must feel when it comes to the Warriors. They’ve knocked on the door several times, but have been rebuffed in the most soul-crushing of fashions. At some point, you either have to run through that wall or go back to the drawing board in order to build a tank.

Thunder Killer

Stephen Curry – He shot it from the R!…..With confidence.

Thoughts from the Sideline

• We could’ve had Stephen Curry. He was in the James Harden draft and was chosen 7th. It’d be an interesting “What if?” if the Thunder had chosen Curry instead of Harden. I mean, he’d probably be playing for a different team and we’d probably be looking into our 8th shooting guard option.
• Draymond Green’s stat line in the last Warriors/Thunder match-up – 2 points, 14 rebounds, 14 assists, 6 steals, and 4 blocks…the only man in the league that would struggle with the points portion of a possible 5×5.