The Golden State Warriors head to Chesapeake Energy Arena on Saturday night to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder in a marquee Western Conference matchup. The Warriors come into this game at 52-5 which is the best record in the NBA while the Thunder come in at 41-17 which is third best in the West.
The Warriors were beaten badly by the Blazers a little more than a week ago but they have responded in a big way. Golden State has rattled off four straight wins since that blowout loss and are on pace to break the wins record. The Bulls team that won 72 games was 51-6 through 57 games so the Warriors are in good shape to make history.
Golden State last played on Thursday night when they beat the Magic by 16 points. In that game Stephen Curry had 51 points on 10-15 shooting from three. Curry is approaching the record for threes made in a season already, a record he set himself last season. The 27-year-old guard is running away with the race for MVP as he is the NBA's leading scorer and should easily take home the award for the second straight season.
Klay Thompson has been a huge help to Curry this season but is coming off a game where he only scored nine points. Before that game Thompson had scored at least 23 points in five consecutive games so he will look to get back on track on Saturday night.
On the injury front the Warriors are still without backup center Festus Ezeli. There hasn't been an update on Ezeli in about a week and a half so he is still likely not close to returning. With Ezeli out we should see some Anderson Varejao and a lot of Draymond Green at center.
While the Warriors come into this game playing great the same cannot be said of the Thunder. Oklahoma City has lost three of its last four games and are now in danger of falling from the third spot to the fourth spot in the West. The Clippers are just three games behind them and although it wouldn't seem all that important, the difference between third and fourth, it is huge. Whoever gets the third spot will be able to avoid the Warriors in a second round playoff series and instead likely take on the Spurs (admittedly not much better, but still better).
In the Thunder's last game, a loss to the Pelicans, they got great performances from both Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant yet they still lost. Durant and Westbrook have been tremendous all season but the fact that they lost despite the two of them combining for 76 points shows the Thunder's major flaw. They need a third scorer and they have guys that are certainly capable like Serge Ibaka and Enes Kanter.
Ibaka did have 15 points in the game against the Pelicans and has been in double figures the last five games but overall his production has been inconsistent. Westbrook and Durant are a truly great duo but in order for this team to reach its potential they need a third guy to step up night in and night out and that guy should be Ibaka.
Everyone should be available for the Thunder in this game as they are relatively healthy. Andre Roberson came back from his knee injury on Wednesday and has played 20 plus minutes in both games since.
This will be the second of three meetings between these two teams this season. The first meeting took place a few weeks ago at Oracle Arena and the Warriors came away with a close victory. The third and final meeting is set for Thursday so these teams will see plenty of each other in the next week.
The game is scheduled to tip off at 8:30 Eastern time on ABC and to watch the live broadcast go here. For the Warriors radio broadcast go here and for the Thunder radio broadcast go here.
