With the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors set to face off on Monday night, Isaiah Thomas will get his first taste of the rivalry between the two teams that have met in the finals three years in a row.
There will be chippyness, hard fouls and a intensity so high that fans will be able to feel it from their flat-screen televisions thousands of miles away.
For Thomas, he will finally know what it’s like to defend Stephen Curry while in a Cavaliers uniform. And per Nikki Goel of ClutchPoints, he’s looking forward to it.
A battle it will be indeed. However, it’s likely that the battle will be one-sided and in favor of Curry. Thomas is well-known as one of the worst defenders in the NBA. The Cavaliers did not trade for him to defend opposing point guards, but rather to score the ball.
And Curry, as slight as he may be, is one of the most difficult players in the NBA to guard. He will run Thomas off screens while he doesn’t have the ball, he’ll put Thomas in pick-and-roll situations probably all night, and he’ll dribble circles around Thomas when he feels like it.
The only way Thomas can meet the challenge of Curry is if he somehow goes shot-for-shot with him on the offensive end. That’s unlikely, but crazier things have happened.
The game is one to look forward to, and it will be fascinating to see which team comes out on top. The Thomas-Curry matchup is fun, too, but it may have the makings of a lopsided affair between the two players.