The Golden State Warriors triumphantly return to Oracle arena to host the Miami Heat.

After a wobbly start to the season, the Warriors have returned to form recently, wining six of their last seven games, and going 3-0 on their recent road trip. Up next: the Miami Heat.

The Heat are an interesting team made a bit less interesting with the absence of Dion Waiters - the guy who hit a game winner on us last year. Waiters is attending to the birth of his daughter, so while we will miss him, his absence is for the best possible reason. Still, with a solid attack led by Goran Dragic running the point, and anchored by Hassan Whiteside at Center, the Heat are still relatively dangerous. Without Waiters, the Heat will slip Justise Winslow in as their starting Small Forward who is also not quite as good as Kevin Durant.

Now, I said they were an interesting team, but that does not necessarily mean the Heat are good. As per reliable GSOM member ServantOfLuna the Heat are ranked 20th in offensive efficiency and 16th in defensive efficiency - decidedly not excellent. I don’t want to overlook any NBA team, especially one that beat us last year - but let’s just say the betting odds are pretty firmly swinging towards the Warriors tonight:

The Warriors are resting

We covered this in a previous article, but the new NBA anti-”resting” rule only seems to apply to marquee players in Nationally televised games - so there are no problems with the Warriors decision to rest David West tonight. He’s been playing well lately so this is almost certainly a move designed to allow more minutes for some of our young big men to step onto the court.

Kerr has talked about this already and knows that he has more viable players than he does minutes to distribute, so resting West is a strategic move that will ensure some of our young guys see the floor. Watch for the division of labor here too, rookie Jordan Bell quickly played himself into the rotation over Kevon Looney - but Looney has actually managed to look presentable in his limited time and maaaaaay (just possibly) be figuring this NBA thing out!

But this won’t just be a push between Looney and Bell, Omri Casspi has performed admirably when called upon, so could see some minutes in one of Kerr’s zanier lineups tonight.

Prediction

Klay Thompson records a blocked shot.

How to watch

Who: Warriors (7-3) vs. Heat (4-5)

When: Monday, November 6 at 7:30 p.m. (PST)

Where: Oracle Arena, Oakland, California

How to Watch: NBCSBA, SUN

Radio: 95.7 The Game