Tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET the Oklahoma City Thunder (29-10), who earned themselves a big win over the Houston Rockets last night, will be back in action against the Golden State Warriors (25-15) on ESPN. Live stream the rubber match between these two Western Conference powers for free here. Warriors fans can listen to the game on KNBR 680, while Thunder fans can tune in to WWLS 98.1.
It's unfortunate for NBA fans that these two teams won't meet again until the playoffs if it breaks down that way; the two games combined have been decided by two points.
Golden State's Andre Iguodala, one of the NBA's top perimeter defenders, will have his hands full with a locked-in Kevin Durant, whose per game scoring average has soared to 30 with fellow superstar Russell Westbrook out.
"Kevin Durant is still as good as it gets," Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. "His ability to put everybody on his back. His ability to score, and make everybody a live weapon. We've gotta be able to contain and attempt to make him work."
Defensively, Oklahoma City showed flashes of becoming an elite unit. They were gashed by 3-pointers in the first half, but held Houston to zero 3-pointers in the final two quarters, and kept them under 20 points for the half.
The Warriors had a 10-game winning streak in the recent past, but have dropped two of their last three games. Their shooting was off on Wednesday night against the Denver Nuggets, when they missed 19 of 28 3-pointers. The loss marked just the fifth time they've lost when their true starting five all were in the lineup.
"It's scary to think how good we are when we click on all cylinders," Jackson said. It's reasonable to expect their 3-point shooting to normalize tonight. Combined with Durant's rampage, and high-end defense, tonight's affair should be close as usual.
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