© Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Contrary to recent Warriors-Thunder matchups, Tuesday night wasn’t overly contentious. But Golden State’s 111-107 win still presented two star-laden teams playing in a playoff-like atmosphere.
We could, and should hope to, see these teams match up in a seven-game playoffs series in two weeks.
Golden State was firmly locked into the No. 2 seed before Tuesday night’s matchup began. The Thunder’s loss knocked them to sixth place in the Western Conference Standings, and only a half-game from the No. 7 seed that will play Golden State in the opening round.
Before Tuesday’s matchup, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr refrained from commenting on Golden State’s first-round opponent because of all the varying possibilities. Seven teams entered Tuesday night within four games of each other, with a little more than a week of regular season play remaining.
But Warriors forward Kevin Durant played along, envisioning a potential first-round matchup with his former squad.
“It would be a fun series, especially with playing in Oklahoma City again, being in that atmosphere in the playoffs,” Durant said after Tuesday shootaround. “It’s always fun.”
If Durant thinks so, you should, too.
Many Warriors fans would love if Golden State cruised through the Western Conference without breaking a sweat. Last year, the Warriors won 12 straight games to sweep the Western Conference, then took a 3-0 lead against the Cavs in the NBA Finals, nearly becoming the first team to escape the playoffs without a loss.
The NBA is enjoying a renaissance, overtaking the NFL as America’s preeminent league in terms of popularity. But another dominant performance mirroring Golden State’s 2017 run is hardly positive for the league.
Everyone expected a Warriors-Cavs finals last season after the teams combined for a 24-1 record entering the NBA Finals. That devalued the opening three rounds.
Cleveland’s inconsistency has leveled the playing field in the Eastern Conference this season. It’s hard to imagine the Western Conference being decided with anything other than a Warriors-Houston Rockets matchup, however, which many will view as the real Finals.
You can skip the first two rounds—which equates to about a month— and likely miss nothing, barring some sort of impactful injury. Last year, only two of the 15 playoffs series went seven games.
A Thunder-Warriors matchup would imbue life into the opening round. The Durant-vs.-his-former-team storyline will always dominate, but there’s so much substance permeating the matchup.
You have the past three recipients of the MVP Award sharing the same floor. You have potentially six combined All-Stars, depending on whether Stephen Curry returns for the first round, which doesn’t include a top-20 all-time scorer in Carmelo Anthony. You have two of the grittiest, hard-nosed big men in the league in Steven Adams and Draymond Green going blow for blow. You have two of the three most-locally watched teams in the league playing in deafening arenas.
You have Zaza Pachulia’s blank stare, Green’s infamous karate kick, and Durant’s post-Thunder wake still troubling Oklahoma City fans.
Topping it all off, you have the looming return of Curry hovering over the entire series.
“We have to be ready to play without him because it’s going to happen,” Kerr told KNBR on March 29. “Whether he plays in Game 6 of Round 1 or Game 4 of Round 2, we don’t know.”
Whether the matchup develops into a competitive series is another topic. But a Warriors-Thunder opening round slugfest is enough to entertain us throughout an otherwise dull opening month of playoffs.
If the Thunder don’t finish with the No. 7 seed, the Warriors will match up with either the Spurs, Jazz, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Nuggets, or Clippers in the opening round. With the possible exception of the Timberwolves, none of these opponents would make for a compelling series, nonetheless a competitive one.
The Thunder are one of the few teams that present enough resistance to at least contend with the Warriors on a given night. Oklahoma City beat Golden State by a combined 37 points in the first two matchups of the season, including a 125-105 win in Oracle Arena. The Warriors returned the favor with a 112-80 beatdown on Feb. 24, and evened the series with their 111-107 win on Tuesday night.
“They gave us some problems earlier this year,” Durant said Tuesday. “They’re physical. They play hard. They get in the passing lanes. You’ve got to take care of the basketball.”
The Warriors remain the heavy favorites in any contest, assuming Curry returns. Even if a Warriors-Thunder matchup doesn’t go six or seven games, it would at least provide substance to a typically boring first round.
“It would be a fun, incredible matchup,” Durant said.