Watched a number of Thunder games in the 4th. I think its a combo of a couple things; first their roster. They don't have a single 3+D wing. Waiters is horrible on both ends; Singler can't defend, Roberson can't make an open shot, Morrow is the worst defender of the group. They have all specialists for one side of the ball. They do have a strong bench; so in the 2nd quarter and end of 3rd quarters their bench outplays the other team. They build up leads then; Kanter's terrible defense isn't as costly against reserves. But then when the opponent puts in their best 5 man crunch time lineup the Thunder are way outmatched at two positions. They also don't have any sort of offense scheme to fall back on; its either isolate Westbrook or isolate Durant. The pace of the game slows down in the fourth as whatever team is ahead is more likely to burn clock. Westbrook doesn't get as many deadly fast breaks in a slower pace game. They're going to be dangerous to any team this year even with their problems. But I could see them having trouble with any of a dozen solid playoff teams this year as well. Their a real wildcard.
Diaw is out for the Spurs but everyone else is playing tonight vs. the Jazz. That should be a good game.
Changing that call was total bullshit! Curry's feet were set and outside of the restricted circle, but he totally leaned into Townes with his upper body. The NBA REALLY wants the Warriors to get to 73 wins. No way was the video evidence sufficient to overturn that call. If anything, it confirmed the call on the floor was correct. BNM
