Kevin Durant believes the Lakers have the best team in the NBA on paper, but he also says the Thunder, who won the 2012 Western Conference Finals before losing in the NBA Finals to the Miami Heat, are still an elite team.
Which of these two teams do you think will finish the 2012/13 regular season with a better record? Or will they tie?
I’m a Laker fan, but I don’t see anyway they win more games during the regular season than the Thunder: LA will need the regular season to figure out the best way to use all of their star players, whereas OKC already has developed that essential team chemistry, and now their role players simply need to work on further improving their individual games (Ibaka’s offense, Maynor’s complete return from injury, Thabo consistently hitting open jump shots, etc.). The true test will be in the playoffs, where I fully expect the teams to meet again in the western conference finals.
It’ll all come down to health. Either way I don’t see either team being ahead of the other by more than 2 games or so.