The Thunder are streaking at the right time. They can probably take the Spurs and make it to the WCF. I still don't see them beating the Lakers four times in a series however.
BTW, this it is no longer possible for goodbug to win this bet. Hopefully he doesn't pull a WelshZow and actually pays up.
durant is the same player, trust me. i think the coaching staff has really helped him prepare for these types of matchups. the first matchup with lebron, he basically got shut down b/c he tried to go at lebron way too too much. the 2nd matchup, he was moving around like ray allen and he did his thing. and he did the same case vs artest. as discussed in regards to guarding players like ray allen, those types of players are hardest to guard b/c you simply can't locate them ALL the time b/c they're always moving. great and physical defenders like artest and lebron LOVE if guys go at them 1-on-1 b/c they simply can just out-physical them out of position and force them to do things out of their nature. obviously, durant isn't as strong as those guys. therefore if he goes at them a lot, it's not a smart move. but he's longer, quicker, and lankier, which helps him if he plays a more finesse game. he can get his shots off on those types of plays before his defender can get to him. durant is a very unique offensive player. he's not a great 1-on-1 player, but he's a great individual scorer (i dont' even know if that sentence makes sense lol) but yes, the thunder is the team that can unseat the lakers. it's going to be an exciting series when those 2 teams collide
I wasn't going to read a lot into this game, but the way the Thunder won tonight was very impressive. The entire game it seemed like the Thunder was better and it was just a matter of them [cliche] imposing their will on the Lakers. When they blew the leads by getting sloppy and the Lakers got hot, OKC just responded by taking back control. I don't think the Lakers played particularly bad, especially Kobe and Pau, they just got their behinds whipped. When Perkins ticked off their whole team in the 2nd quarter, I thought the Thunder might be in trouble because if the Lakers were sleepwalking up to that point, they clearly woke up. But they still lost convincingly. Tonight showed just how good KD can be when he doesn't settle. He is a wicked assassin 10-15 feet from the basket. But when he settles for long fade-away 2-pointers, it bails out the defense. Against the Lakers, KD was very sharp with his shot selection and abused the defense. Props to him for only taking two 3-pointers. If he did this 82 games each season, KD's shooting percentage would be 54-55%. At this point, I guess the Thunder don't care about getting the 3rd seed and facing the Lakers in the 2nd round. Tonight backs up my earlier point if the Lakers and Heat meet in the Finals, home-court wouldn't mean zip.
KD, like all superstars, can have poor selection at times. that's why they're superstars; they think they can score anywhere on the floor. i think homecourt doesn't matter to teams who can play defense. the teams you mentioned are all great defensive teams.
Thunder and Lakers in the WCF or SF depending on seeding...home court wins the series and eventually makes it to the Finals.
Well, first off, he didn't play a very good game, since the game is on both end and his defense was shyte. He did play an excellent offensive first half. He was the worst player on the floor in the last five minutes, where the Lakers coughed up their biggest lead (gained when Kobe was on the bench) and ended up getting blown out. Kobe's +/- of -12 was worst on the team. But more importantly, the LOL is for the Fakers losing AGAIN after all of the chest puffing and media hype during their run. People gave the Heat a bunch of grief during their losing streak, and I'm just returning the favor.
Homecourt matters if it comes down to a Game 7. It's a little harder to get 20 4th quarter FT's on the road than it is at home.
I'm actually more surprised with Ibaka in today's game. He really stepped up offensively. Mohammed also proved himself a very capable backup. This Thunder team will be a huge problem to any team on the defensive end, especially with that athletic frontcourt. Now their frontcourt is getting some offense in as well, and that would create a lot of problems. The Thunder is every defensive coach's dream. That team is so ridiculous tall and athletic. They have great defensive players like Ibaka, Perkins and Sefolosha (who was also on the all-defensive team) Westbrook is also making a name on defense as well, and Durant is developing into a pretty decent defender with his length.
Kobe did fine until the last 3 minutes when the Thunder went on the 15-0 run. During that time, he had 3-4 turnovers and didn't hit a single shot when the game was on the line.
Not if you are the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals in 2002. No, I haven't forgot and never will.
That is actually the biggest problem I have seen with Kobe. He can catch fire and make a lot of shots, but when he goes cold he won't stop shooting. The young Kobe could go on till the end of the game, but this current Kobe needs to defer to Gasol when his shots aren't falling.
