Thunder vs Warriors preview: will Golden State compete tonight?

Oklahoma City Thunder vs Golden State Warriors

Time: 7PM CST

Location: Chesapeake Arena, OKC

Broadcast: TNT

***

The Thunder welcome the defending champs in their final matchup of the regular season tonight in OKC. The Thunder, in the middle of the quagmire that is the West, are hanging on by a thread of Damocles to avoid falling completely out of playoff contention. Meanwhile, the Warriors are firmly locked into the 2nd seed as both Houston has pulled away and the Trail Blazers cannot make up the gap in time.

There are two big questions for tonight. While Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond green are all back in action (albeit less than 100% healthy), the Warriors will still be missing Stephen Curry for another few weeks as well as a number of key role players:

(side note - if you know my feelings on Chris Haynes, then you know why I find this tweet particularly hysterical)

So with all these key players missing, Thunder fans rightly should be terrified, and for good reason. Focus is one of those things they don’t do particularly well.

Path to victory? Don’t let this guy beat you:

Seriously Thunder guys. DON’T LET SWAGGY P BEAT YOU.

OKC will likely have to acknowledge that the Warriors will go on hot streaks where they simply shoot better than OKC. But that’s OK. That’s not what will cause defeat. What will cause defeat is if the Thunder don’t take this game seriously (cough-Celtics-cough).

Weather the offensive spurts, defend the perimeter, let Paul George spend some quality time with Klay Thompson, rebound the misses, make more than 60% of your free throws, don’t let Zaza do Zaza things, and this should be a very manageable game where the Warriors might pack it in early to risk further injury to their stars.

So why am I still nervous?