The Forecast for May 12 – May 18: Chill and don’t panic
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After the game yesterday I tweeted that I felt like someone had kicked me in the face. I’ve since come off that vibe. It was a horrendous loss, yes. One that shouldn’t have happened. The Thunder’s play the back half of that fourth quarter was uninspired, tight basketball. That said, what needed to happen in LA happened. They got the split necessary to regain home court. The playoffs are about moving on. That collapse was some kind of epic, but it doesn’t matter anymore because it already happened.
Anymore, after that Memphis series, I’d imagine that people aren’t as quick to hit the big red panic button that lives on our sleeves next to our hearts. The team has been in much worse positions than the one they’re in now. They figured out how to score on Memphis. They’ll figure our how to score on the Clippers.
Let’s take a look at The Forecast.
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Game V
Team: Los Angeles Clippers (3rd seed in the West)
Round: Second Round of the Western Conference Playoffs
Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 (Home)
Details: This one comes to you on that drama fueled cyber vessel that is TNT. This is when we find out what adjustments are made both ways. Chris Paul won’t guard Durant all game. That would be suicide. But, when he inevitably switches to him, what does Brooks have for that? Does he do what everyone wants and let Durant and Russ PnR the hell out of Paul-Collison and make them have to guard Russ and Kev on the move? Or do we see more elbow isos? I don’t know. This offense has always been impossible yet somehow possible.
Doc putting Paul on Durant is smart, not because Paul is some great defender who can actually guard him. It’s because Paul has garnered such respect from the officials that he can grab him and hold him and they’ll be much more liberal with their whistles. It’s the same thing that happened in 2011 with Jason Kidd. Defenders can guard Durant when the officials find a way to let them. If it happens again, Brooks has to see this and get Durant the ball in space and on the move. I don’t care how many steals Chris Paul averaged. Durant is probably the best one-on-one scorer in the world. Paul can’t handle him over the course of an entire game.
I really do think the offensive woes from Game 4 will be corrected going forward. They were altogether too glaring to just continue to happen. For all the stuff Brooks has done wrong, he’s found ways in the past to free up his guys in crucial games. Now, I’m not expecting to see some proper offense with movement and counters — something resembling a system — I’m not crazy, this is still Brooks. But the guy isn’t averse to adjustments. He’ll make some. Surely, right?
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Game VI
Team: Los Angeles Clippers (3rd seed in the West)
Round: Second Round of the Western Conference Playoffs
Date: Thursday, May 15, 2014 (Away)
Details: It can’t be overstated how well Westbrook has been playing of late. He’s been better than Paul more often than not — he has — and except for Game 1 I’d say he’s been the second best player on the floor throughout the series, behind Durant.
Watching Russ play is like watching someone play who just got punched in the face but has the inability to retaliate. They just wreak havoc with their physicality. Russ moves like he’s pissed about it. Like someone was telling him to get out of bed and go to school and he was finally like, “You want me to go school?!?!!! You really want me to go to school??!?!! Fine!!! I’ll go to school.” Then he pushes the covers back, is already fully dressed — some neon jumpsuit with a purple eagle on the back of it — and when he gets to school he just puts on a motorcycle and starts running into lockers and tearing chalkboards off the wall. But then in third period he has an oral test and he stops destroying long enough to ace it — holstering his fingers after every right answer — and afterwards he throws a party for himself in the gym.
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Game VII
Team: Los Angeles Clippers
Round: Second Round of the Western Conference Playoffs
Date: Sunday, May 18, 2014 (Home)
Details: TNT for this game, again. This one, if we get there, will sound something like a planet exploding. The gravel at the edges of the city rumbling and shaking with every Serge block and Durant dunk. If this happens it will be the biggest home game since the Finals came to town two years ago. There will probably be eighteen technicals doled out and someone will make a play that they put on his Hall of Fame highlight package. It will be either really fun or really heartbreaking like sports always is. Caring is exhausting.
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Acceptable Outcome: 2-1
That’s the only answer here, right? We still have home court. If we were to lose having that, after having held a sixteen point lead in the fourth quarter of a playoff game that would have put us up 3-1 in the series, that would be by the very definition of the word, very unacceptable. The Thunder are the better team here. Despite the collapse yesterday, that’s still the case. The Thunder’s best is better than the Clippers best. It’s high time that they remind the Clippers of that come tomorrow night.
