|
Oklahoma City Thunder
at
San Antonio Spurs
Preview
The History
The Thunder and Spurs played four games last year splitting the series 2-2 with one win each at home and on the road. The first game a 5 point Spurs win saw 5 players for the Thunder get minutes that are no longer with the team. Westbrook only played 19 minutes in the first matchup about the same as Johan Petro and Damien Wilkins. By the time the Spurs saw the Thunder again they had undergone a radical roster transformation. This season the Spurs are the ones having undergone a roster transformation having added Richard Jefferson and DeJuan Blair and dropping Drew Gooden.
The Matchups
Tony Parker v Russell Westbrook
One of the elite point guards in the league against one of the rising stars. Tony Parker is expected to play Saturday but is coming off an injury so he may be a step slower. Westbrook will need every edge he can get to keep up with Parker. The last game saw Westbrook come up with his own injury, although he was cleared to reenter the game, and open the door for the veteran Kevin Ollie. Westbrook is the future and will start but I think Brooks is getting more comfortable putting Ollie in the game in the clutch.
Edge
Michael Finley v Thabo Sefolosha
Finley will probably guard Durant and Sefolosha will probably guard Jefferson. These are the two defensive specialists for their teams and will play a key part in forcing the opposition's scorer to work for his points and both are three point shooters who help stretch the defense while on offense. Finley shoots more often than Sefolosha but Sefolosha cuts more and is getting more involved in the offense.
Edge Push
Richard Jefferson v Kevin Durant
Jefferson is leading the Spurs in points per game and surprise surprise Kevin Durant is leading the Thunder. KD is taking 9 more shots per game than Jefferson and averaging 10 more points. The key is while Jefferson leads the Spurs they have 4 other players in double digits while the Thunder only have 2 more. Still few and far between are the players that can average over 25 points a game and KD is one of them.
Edge
Antonio McDyess v Jeff Green
Jeff Green has played much better against the bigger power forwards this season. McDyess is another forward/center that can give him some trouble but should be a miss match down low with Green's athleticism. I look for Green to have a very efficient game and hopefully the Thunder are able to use him to get consistent points down low.
Edge
Tim Duncan v Nenad Krstic
The big fundamental is the other member of the Spurs big 3 that is coming off injury. If you ask him he is a power forward, and he certainly plays like it. That's actually good for the Thunder because outside of the Orlando game the Thunder have struggled against teams with shot blocking centers. That is not to say that Duncan can't or won't block shots but he is more likely to be comfortable playing away from the basket if Krstic moves out to the perimeter.
Edge
Bench v Bench
Manu Ginobili, George Hill, Matt Bonner, DeJuan Blair, and Roger Mason that's five quality guys the Spurs can bring off their bench. Throw in Keith Bogans who stepped up in the absence of Tony Parker and Tim Duncan and the Spurs certainly challenge for the title of deepest team. Manu is the super sixth man who brings lots of points and playmaking. George Hill has been very good as the backup point guard to Tony Parker. Everyone is raving about DeJuan Blair and with good reason he is averaging 7 and 7 in about 19 minutes a game.
Kevin Ollie really stepped up in the clutch against the Clippers. First he came into a close game when Westbrook got injured then he provided calm controlled pace to a game that was threatening to get out of hand under the frenetic Westbrook. Ibaka played well against the Clippers Chris Kaman, he fouled out but with experience he will play better defense, a number of times he picked up touch fouls that a more experienced player probably doesn't. While Collison provides energy and consistency and Thomas attitude, defense and rebounding the man that makes this bench is Mr. Versatile James Harden. Against the Clippers he had 5 rebounds 8 assists and 7 points on 3-8 shooting. So even on a night that his shoot wasn't really falling he keeps finding ways to contribute.
Edge
The Prediction
The Thunder have been somewhat down the past two games. Part of that might be the trip out west, in which case being back home for a day before heading down the Texas, which is not the trip California is, and coming back home for the second game of the back to back has to be encouraging. The Thunder have played well in San Antonio and last season split the series with the improvement the Thunder have made on defense and the pace both teams like to play at this is an excellent opportunity to get a win on the road over a likely playoff team.
Thunder win 86-80
|
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. Here are some of our high-priority areas that we're specifically looking to grow. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 