Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals should really set the tone of what basketball fans can expect this series. Going into Game 1 it's pretty hard to favor either team, with both teams playing great basketball in this years playoffs.
Game 1 will be played in Dallas, with the Mavericks having the homecourt advantage this series, after finishing 3rd in the West during the regular season, and the Thunder 4th.
Their is a lot of interesting matchups to look forward to in this series, and most people would probably say either Dirk Nowitzki or Kevin Durant would be the biggest keys to their respective teams. Not me. Russell Westbrook is the single most important player in this series to me. He sets the tone for how the Thunder play. How is Jason Kidd going to keep up with Russell Westbrook? Impossible. We saw what Westbrook did to the older Derek Fisher last year in the playoffs. This is a huge advantage for the Thunder, and we could see a lot of the faster JJ Barea trying to guard him. To me, that still won't make much of a difference.
We saw in Game 7 of the Thunder vs Grizzlies series just how good the Thunder can be when running on all cylilnders, and the key once again, was Russell Westbrook. Sure Kevin Durant had a spectacular game, but Westbrook distributed the ball perfectly to get him those open looks. Westbrook ended up having a triple-double with 14 pts, 10 rebounds, and 14 assists in that Game 7.
I wrote an article on Westbrook and Rose earlier last week about how they make their teams better with less shots, and more assists. That proved to be right when the Thunder advanced to the Western Conference Finals, and the Bulls beat the Heat in their first game of the Eastern Conference Finals.
A couple of other great matchups we could possibly see is Kevin Durant possibly taking the challenge of trying to guard Dirk Nowitzki. Let's just say it now. Nobody is going to stop Dirk. But, it will be interesting to see if Durant's length disrupts Dirk's shot even the slightest. On the other end, will it effect Durant's ability on offense? With Durant expending a lot of energy on defense trying to contain Dirk, will that take away his offense?
We could see this series boiled down to a lot of close calls, and both teams need their benches to play as well as they have coming into this series. We all saw the display of the Mavericks 3 pt show against the Lakers in the previous round, and definitely know how much of a threat they can be. But the Thunder's bench is better than the Lakers, so it should be more of even matchup on that note.
For the Mavericks they need big plays from Jason Terry, JJ Barea, Peja Stojakovic, and Brendan Haywood. On the flip side, the Thunder need James Harden, Nick Collison, Daequan Cook, and Eric Maynor to be tough as well.
How will the rest affect both teams? Heading into Game 1 the Dallas Mavericks have had 8 days off since last sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers. Could that negatively effect their hot shooting? You can also ask the same thing about the Thunder, will too short of a rest negatively effect their team? Personally, I'd be more concerned with the older Mavericks team having too much rest, compared to the very young team of the Thunder having too little rest.
But, either way you slice it, it's the playoffs and there are no excuses. Only winners and losers.
Who will step up and take Game 1 of this much anticipated series??
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