After each put a whooping on the two LA teams, the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City
One Of the Worst Nicknames in Sports Thunder are facing off in the NBA Western Conference Finals. As reluctant as I am in to wade in to appraising this series as I know I have at least
ONE reader and he's a die-hard Spurs fan, I am too excited to watch this series to let it be.
A lot will be made by many, including my post title above, of the young v. old aspect of this match up and this makes sense to a degree. There is a 10 year average age difference between each respective teams "big three" (goodgawd is that term played out) with the Tony Parker/Tim Duncan/Manu Ginobili trio averaging out at about 33 years and the trifecta of Russell Westbrook/Kevin Durant/James Harden at roughly 23 years old. This is important in that those three players mean the most to each team respectively as far as production and leadership go and the young guns from OKC have a lot less mileage on those legs. If one looks at the teams as a whole however, as was pointed out in brief by the
PTI guys yesterday, that average age gap drops significantly with the Thunder at about 26 and a half years and the Spurs at 29. This makes sense, and is noteworthy, as the Spurs get solid contributions by some of their younger players, acquired through years of good draft picks and upper management, like DeJuan Blair, Gary Neal, Tiago Splitter and, especially, Kawhi Leonard.
Whether any of the above will matter or not in the series is anybody's guess. Talking heads have been predicting the demise of the Spurs due to their aging core of players for, at least, the past three years. And yet, here we are with those old fogies on an 18 game winning streak that stretches back to the regular season. You can never really discount the wily veterans and their old man strength. I feel like many people will doubt the Spurs and this could help drive them a bit with the whole "the only people who believe in us are in this locker room" deal. (c) Bill Simmons. And it is hard to pick against one of the best power forwards of all time and one of the best coaches of all time. Greg Popovich could easily be the difference in this series.
With ALLLL that said, and despite the fact that Durant and Westbrook fashion themselves as even more ridiculous hipsters
no seriously when are they going to decide to move to the Brooklyn Nets together as they really should be in Greenpoint I still gotta pick the Thunder in 7. My reasoning is simple: I'm going with who I think has the best two players right now. Although it is razor thin, really could not be thinner, I have to pick Durant/Westbrook.
And I already think I may end up regretting that pick. I hope you enjoy
never ever ever in a million years having this anywhere near you this bulletin board material Spurs. Not that you need it.
Image: Google Images
