In the wild Western Conference of the NBA, there are two young teams that scare even the most seasoned of teams.
The Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder are both highly athletic, fast, high-flying teams, and both can be quite physical as they showed in the last two games of the season series against one another.
On April 5th, centers Nene of the Nuggets and Kendrick Perkins of the Thunder battled and banged under both baskets so ferociously, they came close to throwing blows at one point.
Perkins and Nene battled for the board, and Perkins grabbed Nene's jersey. The big Brazilian had enough, and when Perkins rared up and yelled, Nene planted his forehead on Perkins'.
The two beasts had to be pulled away from each other before any true fighting took placed and the tension between the teams was palpable.
Later in the game, Danilo Gallinari bumped Kevin Durant, Durant returned the favor with a shove.
There was a feeling of a rivalry beginning; it will have an opportunity to blossom in the first round of the playoffs.
Of course, Nene versus Perkins will be a marquee matchup due to their physical play, so will Gallinari against Durant as both small forwards are long and can shoot the lights out of the building.
And Durant, the Thunder's superstar, averaged 31.5 points on 48.8 percent shooting in the season series against the Nuggets this year; he will be a focal point on the defensive end for Denver's Gallinari and Wilson Chandler.
But don't sleep on either of the Nuggets' small forwards because both Gallinari and Chandler have sweet shots and either can take the ball to the hoop off the dribble for an emphatic dunk. They will frustrate and wear down Durant over the course of a seven-game series with their high effort on both ends of the court. Gallinari has filled up the hoop for 14.7 PPG, Chandler 12.5, and they've combined for 10.4 RPG in their time with the Nuggets.
Along with the Durantula, Oklahoma City boasts Russell Westbrook, a tall and highly-athletic point guard who is nearly a superstar himself. Like Durant, Westbrook was at his best against the Nuggets this season, with 20.5 points scored and seven assists per game. He can drive and dish with the best of them, and his mid-range jumper is nasty, but Westbrook failed to hit a three-pointer against Denver this year.
Matched up against Westbrook will be Denver's dynamic duo of point guards, Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton, who have meshed fantastically since the trade February 22.
Lawson's averaged 14.8 points and seven assists per game as the starter; he's truly grown into the role in only his second season. And Felton has been solid in his own right, with 11.5 points scored and 6.5 dimes dished out to his new teammates in Denver.
And really, the two quick and speedy point guards are the most devastating when they are on the court together, their chemistry is noteworthy and they feed off of one another, pushing their teammates to run the floor.
Both the Nuggets and Thunder pride themselves on being able to push the pace, another reason this will be such an exciting series to watch.
Other interesting matchups to keep an eye on include; James Harden versus Arron Afflalo, Serge Ibaka against Kenyon Martin and Nick Collison versus Chris “Birdman” Andersen.
Harden is an extremely athletic and physical guard that takes the ball to the hoop aggressively—JR Smith does the exact same. Wildly, Smith and Harden's points per game are identical (12.2), and their shooting percentages are sillily similar (Harden: 43.6, Smith: 43.5), although Smith is the better three-point shooter to be sure.
In the fight for best power forward, Kenyon Martin looks to have the advantage over Ibaka due to the fact that Martin thrives on bullying opponents, getting in their head, while bruising their bodies.
K-Mart is an experienced veteran; he knows what it takes to win the playoffs, he's the Nuggets captain and he's their leader on the defensive side of the floor.
And in the battle for best backup bigman, Birdman and Collison will put together an appealing amount of effort on the boards and on the tip-back attempts.
In the end, the Nuggets are the deeper team, they could basically field two starting-fives in the NBA, yet they have no superstar.
On the other hand, the Thunder have a superstar in Durant and two more “stars” in Westbrook and Perkins, but their depth is questionable to say the least.
Over the course of a seven-game series, Denver has the advantage in depth, and they should be much fresher all around with their ability to rotate in and out a multitude of different players. However, many Nuggets are hurting right now (Nene-abductor strain, Afflalo-hamstring, Lawson-ankle, Mozgov-ankle, Gallinari-ankle, Felton-ankle etc.) which means, their depth will truly be tested, and everyone will have to share the burden of a long series.
Guys like Gary Forbes, Kosta Koufos, Timofey Mozgov and others will have to contribute, and they've shown lately that they are up to the task.
No doubt about it, this series will be a classic, and I'm picking the Nuggets to win in seven games.
Season series stats:
PPG RPG APG SPG TO Record Since All Star
OKC : 106.5 44.5 20.8 8.3 10.5 19-6
DEN: 100.3 38.8 17.3 5.3 13.5 18-7
Series Dates:
Game 1: 4/17 7:30 p.m. MDT in OKC
Game 2: 4/20 6 p.m. in OKC
Game 3: 4/23 8 p.m. in DEN
Game 4: 4/25 8:30 p.m. in DEN
Game 5: 4/27 TBD in OKC
Game 6: 4/29 TBD in DEN
Game 7: 5/1 TBD in OKC
Don't miss:
Scotty Brooks, current head coach of the Thunder, coached under Nuggets' head man George Karl for four seasons (2003-2006), and the two are definitely familiar with one another. It's hard to say who will have the upper hand when it comes to knowing his adversary better, but this just adds another layer of complexity and compelling nature to the coming Nuggets-Thunder series.
Rich Kurtzman is a freelance journalist actively seeking a career in journalism. Along with being the CSU Rams Examiner, Kurtzman is a Denver Nuggets and NBA Featured Columnist for bleacherreport.com, the Colorado/Utah Regional Correspondent for stadiumjourney.com, a weekly contributor to milehighhoops.com and a contributor to milehighreport.com writing on the Denver Broncos.
Rich also heads up PR for K-Biz and Beezy, a Colorado-based rap group.
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