Monday Bolts – 4.14.14
Tom Ziller of SB Nation on how KD took the MVP from LeBron: “As it turns out, Durant did reach higher in scoring and shooting, boosting his efficiency and output. But he also followed the path of generalization by focusing more on moving the rock and setting up teammates who needed it. I’ll argue that two things pushed KD down that path: the trade of James Harden (a creator) instead of Serge Ibaka (a finisher), and these repeat injuries to Westbrook (a creator without parallel). When constructing myths, when writing those origin stories, we so often neglect the context. Durant in 2011 didn’t really need to create much. Durant in 2014 couldn’t survive without creating. What was perceived as weakness was really just unnecessary. We faulted a player for doing something that was totally irrelevant to his team’s fortunes. It’d be like criticizing Joakim Noah for failing to practice his scales on the piano. Now that the Thunder need Durant to facilitate the offense more frequently, he’s doing it. (And perhaps now that Westbrook is back, the team will be richer for the experience.)”
Berry Tramel: “Let me come clean right off the bat. NBA officiating is mostly fantastic. I know, that brands me idiot or heretic. But since the NBA came to Oklahoma City in 2005, I’ve been blessed to sit virtually courtside for more than 200 games. And when people ask why NBA officiating is so bad, I ask, how is NBA officiating so good? How do these guys discern between whether to blow the whistle or which way to blow it, literally every three seconds? How do they get so many calls correct when big, fast men continually collide at angles rarely conducive to a great view? Occasionally, you’ll see a dud game or a dud ref. But a game that’s nigh near impossible to call somehow gets well-called night after night, year after year.”
Worst dressed coaches, and Scott Brooks makes the cut.
Darnell Mayberry: “That’s really the significance of this game. Indiana desperately needed a win to stay in control of its playoff seeding. With the win, the Pacers’ magic number for the top spot is now just one. That means a win by Indiana or a loss by the Heat secures homecourt advantage through the East Finals for the Pacers. Of course, that’s what Indiana has played all season for, the best record in the conference with an eye toward using it to knock off the Heat in a potential East Finals rematch. If that happens, all of Oklahoma will rejoice — and appreciate this loss.”
Simmons and Jalen Rose preview the playoffs.
Marc Stein of ESPN.com has KD as his MVP: “I thought for the longest time that LeBron still had a chance to squeeze past Durant at the finish — after a preposterous surge of his own sandwiched around both sides of All-Star Weekend to remind us all that James had won four of the previous five MVPs — as long as Miami found a way to swipe the No. 1 seed in the East away from Indiana just before the regular-season buzzer. And that might well still happen. But I’d argue that the Thunder, while forced to settle for No. 2 in the West thanks to San Antonio’s ruthlessly efficient ensemble cast, have won more than enough to validate Durant’s candidacy, given that OKC not only swept the four-game season series from the Spurs but also brought a halt to San Antonio winning streaks spanning 11 and 19 games.”
