The Toronto Raptorswent 49-33 in the regular season last year which earned them the number 4 spot in the Eastern Conference. Ultimately the Raptors ended up getting swept by John Wall, Bradley Beal and the Washington Wizards in the first round of the 2015 NBA Playoffs. Fast forward to this year where they tremendously improved their record to 56-26 and locked up the number 2 seed. It also helps that the Raptors have one of the top back courts in the NBA with Demar Derozan and Kyle Lowry. Derozan averaging 21.4 points a game and 4.3 assist while Lowry is averaging 22.0 points a game and 6.3 assist. Toronto has lost 7 straight playoff games, so lets hope that they can defeat the Indian Pacers in the first round this year.
Toronto Raptors Guard Kyle Lowry (left) shares a moment with DeMar Derozan (right) during a home game against the Detroit Pistons.
The OKC Thunder are back in the NBA Playoffs holding the number 3 seed. This year they have there two studs back Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. The Mavericks won’t be able to stop them but how will they be able to contain these two.
Key Matchups
Russell Westbrook vs. Devin Harris, Deron Williams, and Wesley Matthews
Russell Westbrook is known to give anybody guarding him a headache on any given night. His quickness and just natural athletic freakness separates him from the pack. With a smaller Devin Harris guarding Westbrook, look for a lot of Westbrook to be posting him up on the low block and finishing or kicking out to his shooters. With Deron Williams trying to defend Westbrook it’s simple youth vs old age, look for the Thunder to try to get easy transitions buckets off rebounds by getting the older Williams running trying to defend. Against Wesley Matthews look for the Thunder to try to run pick and roll offense with Westbrook to free him up, but if you use Matthews on Westbrook that leaves you another problem, Kevin Durant.
Kevin Durant vs Justin Anderson
Although rookie Justin Anderson is the Mavericks best on ball defender, this is his first time in the playoffs. The veteran Durant will look to take advantage of Anderson whether its coming off screens for mid range jumpers or even going iso this will be a very tough matchup for Anderson.
A Tale of Two Coaches
One thing that the Mavericks have over the Thunder is in the coaching department. Billy Donovan is in his first year as the Thunder Head Coach, previously coaching and winning National Championships at Florida, Donovan took the good with the bad being able to to take over a team with 2 of the top 5 players in the league is good, really good. But The Thunder seem to blow big leads when there are up entering the fourth quarter, nine times they have blown leads and loss the contest. Rick Carlisle brings lots of experience to this series having won the NBA Title in 2011 as the Mavericks Head Coach he also brings his 619 NBA wins and 57 more in the playoffs.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) lays up the basketball against Dallas Mavericks Point Guard Deron Williams (8) in a 108-70 Victory
The Golden State Warriors, were trailing the Oklahoma City Thunder by 11 points going into the half on a Saturday night showdown at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The events that followed next were a bit unusual. Draymond Green could be heard outside of the teams locker room going on a profanity tirade, at one point he challenged Head Coach Steve Kerr and had to be restrained by teammates. You could say Green was upset at himself for the way he was shooting the ball or how much his team was down.
Even though most people get caught up in Curry nailing 3 quarter 3 pointers, or his George Gervin finger roles layups. You cant ignore what Green brings to the table. Being able to play all five positions on the floor he’s also able to turn into a point guard on fast breaks and make wise decisions on passing the ball. Heck he’ll even get down low and bang with bigs like D’andre Jordan and clean the glass often. He’s not afraid to take the challenge and guard your best offensive player, the second round pick out of Michigan State takes pride in his play and plays the game with a chip on his shoulders. Not only does the players feed off of his energy but so does the fans at Oracle Arena. Especially when he flexes both his muscles and yells “AND ONE” after scoring a bucket. If the Warriors are going to repeat they’ll need Green to continue to preform like the All-Star that he is.
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Octavius Thomas 