Meet the Golden State Warriors, who are remarkably similar to last year's Sonic team.
Nellie goes small a lot and as a result they're getting slaughtered on the glass and on defense. This is the perfect opportunity to go balls out and win 3 in a row.
Game strategy could come down to controlling the boards with Lewis, Collison and Wilcox vs. the comparatively Radmanovic-esque frontcourt of Biedrins, Pietrus and Troy Murphy. Those matchups are all grounds for a bona fide serious monster game from Chris Wilcox if the Sonics choose to exploit it. As much as I like Biedrins and Pietrus as players I do not think they have the slightest chance of defending either Lewis or Wilcox in the post for long stretches. If there's one thing I've noticed about coaching against Nellie over the last few years it's don't try to go small against him too much. We'll see how Hill chooses to match up.
It should also be interesting to see where and how Nellie brings the double team in the post, or if he does. Conventional wisdom would seem to suggest doubling off Damien's man since he is a fairly weak outside shooter; we'll see if that happens or not.
In the backcourt I see a Warrior team that's a bit similar to the Hornets team that was here on Friday night ... a dynamic, explosive scorer at PG but not a lot of help around him. As KP points out Monta Ellis is pretty good at getting to the rim but turns the ball over a lot. In the Hornet game the Sonics scored quite a few points off TOs and tonight could be somewhat similar.
I like Squatch and all, but Thunder is a pretty cool looking mascot. If you're going to have a mascot why not one with gi-normous pectoral muscles?
As always Pre-func with Insider Preview, brought to you by The Amazing Kevin Pelton.
GO SONICS!
(Go Hawks too!)