Mavericks Vs. Thunder Western Finals Prediction

The NBA world will be treated to a pro basketball version of the Red River Shootout as the Oklahoma City Thunder will play the Dallas Mavericks for the right to head to the NBA Finals.

While the two teams don't have bad blood between them like Oklahoma and the Texas Longhorns of the college football world, they could by the end of this series. The Western Conference Finals predictions will most likely be in the corner of the Mavericks and for good reason.

Dallas just came off one of the best performances in recent playoff memory when they took out the Lakers, dismantling the back-to-back champs in a series that saw Dirk Nowitzki play like the best player on the planet.

He was near-unguardable in that series and now the Thunder will have to figure out a way to slow him down. Nick Collison, Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins, and the rest of the Thunder big men can effectively deal with Nowitzki or play him even down low and on the boards, but where he poses a major problem is outside the paint.

Kevin Durant probably isn't strong enough to guard Nowitzki for too long and the Thunder do not want to have him playing defense against such a tough cover because they need him to be fresh on offense.

The Thunder-Mavericks predictions also hinge on how well Jason Kidd can handle Russell Westbrook. It's a bad matchup for Kidd who doesn't quite have the footspeed to stay with him. Kidd is crafty but the Mavericks will have to help him out.

In this one, we could end up seeing an old-fashioned duel between Westbrook and Jason Terry in the backcourt and of course Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Durant in the frontcourt. This will be a high-scoring old-school Western Conference Finals series, but in the end, the Mavericks will prove too experienced and too hungry for the young Thunder.

The Mavs have a little more depth and a lot of players who've been in many more big games before, and they will eventually wear down Oklahoma City.

Mavericks vs. Thunder Western Conference Finals prediction: Mavericks win in six games to head to the Finals.