The seventh game of the Western Conference Finals is scheduled for May 30, with a 9 p.m. tip, just in case you’d like to start planning your watch party now.
While we didn’t get the Golden State-San Antonio match-up that had been pretty much penciled in since the first of the year, we may have gotten a superior one once Oklahoma City bounced the Spurs.
Watching the Thunder win the last three against San Antonio was a validation of OKC’s greater youth and athleticism – something it will bring to bear against the 73-win Warriors.
This is must-see stuff, no matter that Golden State won all three regular-season match-ups. It required a Steph Curry 37-foot 3 with under a second left in overtime to win the most recent meeting. Come Monday night, we enter the best-of-seven holding our collective breath that Curry, whose knee and ankle are issues, doesn’t take one wrong step and is lost for the duration. That would be more than a blow to Northern Californians. It would be devastating to anyone who appreciates basketball as an art form.
No shot has passed so purely through metal ring and string net as Curry’s – and that is not something I am prepared to give up now.
With OKC, this series features four of the top seven vote-getters in the MVP balloting (Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Draymond Green). It is an embarrassment of individual talent – something that the Warriors have harnessed and Billy Donovan has worked effectively on in his first year as Thunder coach.
I believe there is another series going on with the other conference as well, but that may be only a rumor. Enough about that.
A pause here to actually thank television for something. Who would have thought you’d ever be grateful for a 9 p.m. start to a week night game? But having tried to watch the Warriors this season – with so many of their games beginning at 10:30 Eastern – 9 p.m. seems almost civilized. There is a chance at least now to catch the most watchable team in the NBA and go to work the next day only nominally glazed over. You know, like usual.
Oh, and by the way: Warriors in seven (if Curry stays well, and only because I want to draw this one out as long as possible).
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