He has never had to play without Westbrook. Imagine if harden had a player that demanded so much attention (like WB). How much more efficient would Harden be? People are saying that Durant needs to be more selfish and shoot the ball more but I think his efficiency is going to go WAY DOWN. He has never had the entire defense focusing on him... I'm not saying parsons is going to shut him down, he is still going to get his own and go on short stretches of making his shots at his hotspots BUT I have never seen him play with a double team and pressure defense ALWAYS focused on him. Is KDs scoring hype really accurate? We will see tonight.
Kevin Durant, no matter who else is on the floor, is un-guardable. His jumpshot reminds me of a young Tmac, only better. He's able to rise up over his defender with unlimited range. I fully expect him to go off tonight.
I wouldn't worry about KD. He will be fine. I'm guessing he averages around 34 for the rest of the series. He can score on just about anything. We know he will be fine, what we don't know is how Reggie Jackson is going to react to this. He could completely go off or crumble. Also, Kevin Martin will now have to bring up his swagger a notch. We saw how well he scored off the pass with the Rockets. He can probably average 25 for the rest of the series given the chance. We have to bring extra pressure to him now that Russ is out.
He hasn't cracked 50% in 7 career matchups with Chandler Parsons. Shot 40% on Wednesday. He's a great player, but I wouldn't say he's unguardable. The Rockets have done some good things against him.
I don't believe in discrediting great players before huge games. KD is going to score a ton of points the rest of the series. The key, of course, will be using Parsons and our overall defensive scheme to try to turn him into a jump shooter. If he scores 40 points without entering the paint and getting to the basket, I can live with that.
i say play him straight up from 27ft down to about the freethrow extended area anything below that bring the double, especially if it isnt parsons guarding him
I think the best bet would be to double hard anywhere around the 3 point line and in to keep the ball out of his hands. He hasn't had to pass out of a hard double in his career. I don't think teams could really double hard on him because of the havoc Westbrook caused, and Durant is so good off the ball. Usually when he creates offense for himself its 1 on 1 until the defender gets beat so he either shoots or passes to whoever left their man to help. If Ibaka, Jackson, Thabo, and Martin can break us down, then I guess you tip your hat and say gg. We are about to find out how good Durant really is.
