As a foreword to this, I did not write this, I passed it off to someone else of much better knowledge than myself on the subject of basketball, my good friend Timothy Smither. Here is his preview and prediction of the Western Conference Finals.
Back in the mid to late 90's I was a fan of two teams in the NBA. The Seattle Supersonics (now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder) and the Chicago Bulls (and honestly who wasn't a fan of MJ and the Bulls). They both met each other in the 1996 NBA finals. Chicago prevailed in the end, as Michael Jordan had an emotional game 6 win to end the series on Father's day. Fast forward to the 2011 playoffs, and I believe they will both meet again (15 years after the first time they met) for a rematch. The Bulls are currently playing the Heat and if they keep up their level of ball playing they will be well on their way to the finals. The Thunder are about to square off with the Dallas Mavericks. It's hard for me to assess this match-up. I know it will be tough for the Thunder to win this series for a few different reasons, but I believe the Thunder will beat Dallas in 6. They won't beat Dallas if it goes to 7. The challenges that the Thunder are facing are that it is the first series they do not have home court advantage, Dallas has become well rested after sweeping the defending champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, Dirk is seemingly unstoppable, and the bench for Dallas poses a real threat as they did for Los Angeles. I think that as long as Durant puts up some big points as he is known to do alongside of Westbrook they will keep up with Dallas. But they have to play defense and their bench has to step it up. I am not sure who will be able to guard Dirk. Maybe Perkins can do it or maybe even Durant. If they cannot stop him hopefully they will look to close out other options. Forgive me for my bias but let's go Sonics! I mean, Thunder.
Prediction: Thunder in 6.
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