Tuesday Bolts – 5.24.11
NBA Playbook breaks down the final play: “Watching the play, especially in slow motion, it becomes obvious that Durant is supposed to come off of a backscreen from Collison. Instead for whatever reason, he flashes to the basketball. Now, why does he do this? It could be a number of reasons, maybe he thought that Westbrook caught the ball too far away from the middle of the court or he didn’t have faith in the play, but either way, you can’t break off the play there.”
Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus: “Basically, Brooks is failing at the fundamental task of a head coach: putting his players in the best position to succeed. Durant and Westbrook are continually ending up in difficult situations and asked to make something happen. When they do, it looks spectacular, but Oklahoma City can’t count on those kind of low-percentage plays as the bedrock of its late-game offense.”
Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com: “But it’s a bit more complicated than that. Some will say Oklahoma City choked, and they’ll have a point. Did the Thunder give away Game 4? Yeah, probably. But something else happened. The Mavericks took it. Took this series, too, most likely. Three games remain, two of them in Dallas, and the Mavs need to win just one to get to the NBA Finals. “Just be positive,” Durant said. “It’s not over yet.” Interesting final word.”
John Hollinger of ESPN.com: “Yet the biggest takeaway is simply this: Teams don’t normally just ascend from nowhere to NBA champions without going through a bit of pain along the way. I’m not sure the Thunder players understand that yet. But their fans may. Knowing this was likely the last game in Oklahoma City Arena this season, they began cheering the team at the end of overtime, even in the wake of the most crushing defeat in their history in this city.”
Chris Mannix of SI: “This was their game, their Super Bowl and they kicked it away. “Our youth has nothing to do with it,” Durant said. But it does. Young teams take quick shots with a lead in the fourth quarter, cough the ball up down the stretch and allow the magnitude of the moment to creep into their brains. They have played with the maturity of seasoned pros throughout most of the 2011 playoffs but in this one, the Thunder acted their age.”
My column for CBSSports.com: Youth is no excuse.
Darnell Mayberry: “Brooks took his stubbornness to new heights tonight. And it worked terrifically. With noise coming from all corners (including this one) about Brooks needing to alter either his starting lineup or the minutes distribution, the Thunder coach played Kendrick Perkins 10 1/2 minutes in the first quarter and didn’t bring in his first sub until 3 1/2 minutes were left in the opening quarter. It’s like Brooks said, ‘I’ll show y’all.’ But really, Perk played his tail off. His hustle and energy were contagious. He had two points, two rebounds, two assists and a block in those first 10 1/2 minutes.”
What happened when James Harden fouled out.
Kelly Dwyer of BDL: “Go ahead. You can call it a meltdown. Just don’t call it surprising. Or destructive. Or damning, or damaging, or poisonous. This was supposed to be what happened to Oklahoma City, if it kept playing like Oklahoma City. Because throughout the 43 minutes of Monday’s Game 4 that saw Oklahoma City up 15 and coasting throughout, we still were shown two distinct Oklahoma City teams. One defended, got out in transition, and score effortlessly. The other? Even in near-victory, it looked terrible.”
Great feature from SLAM on Serge Ibaka.
Kevin Pelton writes that being young doesn’t guarantee future success: “But that Jazz team reflects the cautionary aspect of this tale. After getting swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2007 Western Conference finals, Utah’s core of players would go on to win just two playoff series together over the next three years before being torn apart by free agency and the trade of Deron Williams to the New Jersey Nets. Instead of heralding the Jazz’s arrival as a Western Conference power, the unexpected trip to the conference finals (aided by the Golden State Warriors upsetting that year’s top-seeded Dallas team) turned out to be a high point.”
