The Oklahoma City Thunder buried the Minnesota Timberwolves with a convincing second half to take Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. And while some will tell you that no series begins until a road team wins a game, ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins believes that these 48 minutes provide more than enough data points to make a conclusion.
Perkins proclaimed the Timberwolves to be in trouble on Wednesday's Get Up.
"This series is not going past six games, I'm telling you this right now," Perkins said. "Minnesota might get one. I'm telling you, you have to see it up close in-person. I saw it last night with my own two eyes. The Oklahoma City Thunder didn't even play their best basketball to be honest ... imagine when they're at their best what's going to happen."
The victory was pretty resounding on television as well, so Perkins isn't really going out on too much of a limb here. Of course, the Denver Nuggets just pushed the Thunder to a winner-take-all series that swung many different ways depending on the night so everything is subject to change.
Game 2 of the Western Conference finals is Thursday night on ESPN if you still believe there's some intrigue remaining. Or if you just want to see if Perkins is right.
More NBA on Sports Illustrated