He's shooting .389 FG% the last five games - what's wrong with calling him Westbrick? What you fail to understand (or admit) is that he can be a much more efficient scorer and still be the one-two punch OKC needs. There's clearly a play called for Durant and rather than use it, he often decides to go one vs. heat without passing the ball. Durant shot %53.2 percent vs. the spurs and 60% last night. Take into account his higher ft% and 3pters, Durant's ppp and true shooting % must be a couple leagues above Westbrick's. Furthermore, the Heat are actually double teaming Durant when he touches the ball; WB and the entire Thunder team could get more efficient looks playing off Durant. The fact that you don't care to concede some of the above argumentation, don't care for basic statistcs, and call other people idiotic for wanting Westbrick to pass to Durant more often is ...truly idiotic (or you just like slobbering on WB's balls ).
Westbrook's aggressiveness is the difference between the Thunder and Heat. His misses result in easy offensive rebounds as the defense is completely collapsed
Bolded for truth. Spolestra HAS to put James on Durant. If James gets exhausted, then so be it. Wade simply cannot stop Durant, as Kevin will just shoot over him. Or, maybe Bosh might have a good chance at changing Durant's shot in the post. I know he couldn't guard Nowitzki in 2011, but Spo has to try something different than turning Wade loose on Durant.
The Heat needed to contain WB. He was the main reason the Heat lost to OKC. 27/8/11 was too much, esp. with Wade playing like a damn scrub. But this game should give the Heat more hope that they can win this series. The Heat got into the paint AT WILL v. OKC, even when OKC defenders give the James/Wade a ton of shooting space. And you could see Lebron's fatigue from the Boston series. He should be much better from game 2 on adjusting to a new speed. And they missed quite a few layups that they should make. They shouldn't go away from their gameplan. Bron/Wade just simply have to make a few jumpers. They just have to. They didn't at all last night. Bosh will play better. He got all the "right" shots he wanted. OKC is a great jumpshooting team, and they made their jumpshots. What pissed me off was how many damn wide open shots Durant has. Jesus. They guy is one of the best shooters and he had AT LEAST 5-6 shots where there wasn't a hand in his face. Spo has to determined whether he wants LBJ on him full time, or have him guard WB. Don't roam around. Also those 2 offensive reboudns late in the 4th were backbreakers. Heat got outrebounded by 8, outshot by 7%, outassisted, out-transitioned by 20 points... and the game was still in close enough with 2-3 minutes left. Heat have a lot of things to shore up with just "effort" plays. Sucks I can't see full games for the Finals. Only caught the end of the 3rd on last night.
Their interior defense was terrible, I don't how many times I saw WB dribble drive but not pass out, but passed into Collison or another big for a easy deuce. D. Fisher even had a play where he made a easy pass into the paint and got a easy bucket for one of their bigs.
First of all, I think calling a very good basketball player an insulting nickname shows ignorance on your part. Secondly, stats don't tell the whole story. Did Westbrook struggle in the 1st half? Yes. But he missed a ton of layups around the rim then as well. In the second half, he played a great game. Finally, I'm a huge Durant fan as I'm a UT alum. However, if you think just because Durant has great shooting percentages and sabermetric numbers that it helps OKC to have him shoot close to 30 times a game, you would be wrong. It doesn't work that way. If Westbrook relegates himself to just playing off Durant all the time, teams will deny Durant the ball because Sefolosha, Perkins, and Ibaka are not scoring threats. Westbrook scoring opens up Durant, and Durant opens things up for Westbrook. Westbrook was also getting and taking good shots for the most part. This isn't a video game where you can have Durant shoot 50 times a game and win every game.
The Heat haven't faced an offense this good so they will adjust. WB usually doesn't play this well v. the Heat so I don't think he'll play better than this. Durant will get his points though b/c he gets most of his shots off the ball. The Heat need to contain WB/Harden. I didn't expect WB to put up 27/8/11. They contained him in the first half, and the Heat led. They didn't in the 2nd half, and they lost. WB killed the Heat with his scoring/passing. I think Lebron needs to be on him more, and let Durant do whatever he wants. WB's versatility offensively kills the Heat.
I disagree. Game 1 gives me less hope this series goes longer than 5 games. Wade is playing like a dog, and unless he snaps out of it, this series doesn't get to 6 games. Battier and Chalmers won't pick up the slack every game like they did in game 1.
Just like a lot of things went well for OKC to win that game. Durant was on fire, WB had his best playoff game, got all the effort rebounds, 24-4 on the break... And they were at home. OKC played very well. They took that game from the Heat's hands. The Heat have to respond.
Battier is not the best one on one defender . His strength is knowing where the help defense is and playing to make the offensive guy go to the help. That only works if you have decent bigs, which Miami does not. Chris Bosh is soft and the rest of the people are scrubs. He was never quick laterally and now that he is older it is showing even more. Besides KD is a freak of nature , that he is 6'10" but he can handle the ball and shoot like crazy. Almost impossible to guard at times when his jumper is falling. If he ever develops a post game its going to be scary.
True, I don't expect Battier to shoot like that ever again in this series. But Chalmers will. He's been pretty damn good for most of the playoffs. Although he's the Heat's most maligned player, he's also their fearless. True, Wade has got to step it up, and chances are slim. I give up on him. But Bosh will. He got great shots. I don't know why they went away from him for long stretches spanning the 3rd/4th where his man basically left him all alone to help on James/Wade. He's basically wide open EVERY TIME. And yet he went 4-11. OKC's defense gives up that J off the pick and roll. Use it. And you also should expect Heat's defense to be better. They're a top 2 defense in the league. OKC shot 52%, with a lot of uncontested shots. Expect less switching in game 2 from the Heat.
Harden was crap and Battier had his game of the season. Westbrook destroyed the Lakers. Same thing will happen to the Heat.
Harden was crap b/c he only played 22 minutes. Brooks sacrificed him to have defense on the floor. Thabo played 21 minutes in the 2nd half. So are you saying Harden will play more and Thabo will play less? Thabo's D helped turn the game around last night. The Lakers dont have perimeter defense. The Heat do. Westbrook was very bad in the first half. And he has ALWAYS been bad v. the Heat the past 2 years. But WB is the x-factor in this series. He plays well, OKC will win. The Heat have to key in on him more than Durant. It's harder to stop Durant b/c he gets a lot of his shots off teh ball; WB doesn't. Ultimately, if the Heat lose game 2, they will lose this series. Must win for them on Thursday. Going to be a great game.
The bottom line is unless Wade snaps out of it, the Thunder big 3 is better than Miami's. Then they have a better and deeper collection of role players. Miami's chances of winning this series hinge on the play of Wade. If he snaps out of it we have a series, if not get the parade started in OKC. T-Mac, Bosh can play better but I can say the same about Harden.
Thabo and Harden can easily play together, as they did in the 4th quarter. Lakers may not have best perimeter defence, but they had much more presence inside with Bynum and Gasol. OKC didn't get 56 points in the paint agaist them.
OKC averaged like 102 in playoff, against 3 very good defensive teams in playoff. 105 points is a good game but not great. No team in NBA can stop them on offense. Especially not when they go small. Spurs won 2 for their super offense, and Heat is not capable of that. Last night, Harden didn't contribute much. No one but Durant can make a open shot in 3pts line. Ibaka wasn't given many minutes to show off his middle range game. I don't see how Heat can be much better defensively.
Bosh gets wide open shots like Battier though. OKC doesn't respect him at all. So he has a higher chance of getting it going. But yes, Wade's funk will most likely prevent the Heat from winning this series. If Wade was normal, the Heat won last night period. It sucks that Wade is holding them back so much. Look, OKC played great last night. Miami had its chances to win the game. That game was not an 11 point game. The Heat can play better defense by contesting shots. Durant got 2-3 shots in the 4th quarter where his guy basically didn't know where he was. Inexcusable. And WB got into the lane 2x b/c of poor rotations. Inexcusable for the league's premier perimeter defensive team. People are saying Ibaka/Harden didn't play more. Thunder won b/c they turned that game around with defense/rebounding. Thabo/Collison keyed that. Brooks recognize that in his interview with Doris Burke. You should expect those 2 to play more, and Harden/Ibaka to be in the mid-20 minutes.
Heat doesn't have a post up player like Bynum or TD. Thunders can play a roster of WB, Harden, Sefo, Durant, iBaka 1-5 without missing a beat. Yesterday they used Fisher for long minutes because Harden was in foul trouble.
