It’s only January, but for most of the season Golden State’s gaze has been fixed on the playoffs. With a three-game lead over the Houston Rockets for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and any chances of missing the playoffs quickly disappearing in the rearview mirror, the only thing separating the Warriors from defending their NBA Finals championship, according to The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson, is the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“That’s the team that’s scary. Oklahoma City is scary,” Thompson said on Murph & Mac Tuesday morning. “I think if the Warriors played well, and Oklahoma City plays well, just in this matchup, they can beat the Warriors. I believe that.”
After being subdued by the Rockets in the first round of last year’s playoffs, the Thunder went out and made trades for Paul George and Carmelo Anthony during the offseason. At first, their additions didn’t do much good as Oklahoma City started the year 8-12 through their first 20 games; although they capitalized on 22 turnovers to beat the Warriors 108-91 in their first meeting of the season on November 22 during that tough stretch.
Now, Oklahoma City is 26-20 and on a four-game winning streak after demolishing the Cleveland Cavaliers 124-26 on Saturday, and the combination of George, Anthony and Russell Westbrook is playing out the same way they envisioned it would during the offseason.
Another team that Thompson believes can give the Warriors some grief during the playoffs are the Rockets, especially after their victory against Golden State on Saturday night. They secured the head-to-head matchup with the Warriors after their 116-108 victory, in which Golden State turned over the ball 19 times.
Yet, he doesn’t believe the Rockets have enough to beat the Warriors in the playoffs.
“I just feel like they can get to six now,” Thompson said about the Rockets. “Look, I watched that game again and they played all out. I mean, they were playing hard. They wanted that game. You know James Harden was on a minutes limit and that was blown out of the water and the Warriors did not play well at all. And they still almost won that game.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and skip to 9:43 for Thompson on Oklahoma City.
