Tuesday Bolts – 4.30.13
Zach Lowe of Grantland writing about Game 3, but with some fascinating post-Westbrook stuff: “Durant
dribbled the ball 377 times in Game 3, about 240 more dribbles than he averaged per game for the season, according to data provided exclusively to Grantland from the SportVU camera system installed in 15 NBA arenas, including in both Houston and Oklahoma City. That number is between 50 and 100 fewer dribbles than the most dribbly point guards — Tony Parker, Westbrook, Mike Conley, Damian Lillard, et al. — averaged in recorded games, but it’s in the same neighborhood as the per-game averages for some point guards who don’t pound the ball quite as much (Kyrie Irving, Ricky Rubio, Ty Lawson, and others), per the SportVU data. Durant touched the ball 111 times in Game 3, almost double his season average, and a number that would’ve led the entire league, per the camera data.”
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports: “Outside his locker on Monday night, the smile curled over Beverley’s mouth. As the Rockets guards go, Beverley (16 points, four rebounds, three assists and no turnovers) had been far better in every way than Harden (15 points, three assists and an ungodly 10 turnovers). Out of nowhere, Beverley refuses to stop impacting this series and suddenly is turning into a cornerstone player for the Rockets’ future. For now, he’ll simply be the most hated man in Chesapeake Energy Arena on Wednesday night. Nevertheless, Beverley promises it won’t be the most volatile setting of his young career. At 24 years old, he’s been to basketball oblivion and back, and these circumstances bring out the ferocity with him.”
Thunderground Radio recapping Game 4.
Kevin Durant on Jason Collins: “If the guy’s happy, whatever he does, that’s cool with me,” Thunder star Kevin Durant said at Monday’s shootaround. “Jason Collins, playing against him, seems like a great guy. Never got the chance to know him. But if he’s happy, that’s cool. Nobody has any right to judge. He’s his own man. Makes his own decisions. As NBA players, it’s like a big group of guys, kind of like a brotherhood. I know I support him. Like I said, I don’t really know him, so whatever decision he makes is something he really thought was good for him. Nothing nobody else can say about him. As long as he’s happy, it’s cool.”
Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com: “That’s all this conversation about openly gay athletes has ever been about it, our collective willingness to afford them the dignity of self-expression. A human being simply can’t live in fear of their own identity. Anyone who has could tell you how torturous it is. Jason Collins understood that, and that realization fueled his decision to come out as an openly gay man on Monday. Collins called coming out “the right thing.” Some of that is a political imperative, but more than anything, Collins made a quality of life decision, just as did Golden State executive Rick Welts and anyone else who’s opted, as Collins wrote, to be whole. That means taking all the different fragments in life — work, family, friends, passions, maybe school or worship — and bringing them together and becoming a complete person. Sports was one of the last places in American public life where that was impossible, but Collins has righted that.”
From Elias: “Since NBA postseason seeding began in 1984, #1 seeds are 46-0 when holding a 3-1 series lead over the #8 seed.”
Marc Stein of ESPN.com: “When it was over, Durant was faced with the same task. The Thunder might be going home with a 3-1 lead, but it’s not the most ebullient group after blowing leads of 15 and 26 points in Games 2 and 3, then surrendering 38 points in the third quarter of Game 4 to squander the last of another double-digit cushion. Not to mention how much they all miss Russ. There was Serge Ibaka, lying flat on his back at the buzzer, shamed by how short he left a follow attempt right at the rim that would have forced overtime. And there was Durant, tasked with trying to lift Ibaka’s spirit off the floor, taking on one more job to go with everything he’s suddenly got to do on his own these days.”
Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com: “It was a rough game for Ibaka — eight points, five rebounds — but I’m done writing about him. This loss wasn’t his fault, though he personifies what happened in this game, and what will happen again and again as these playoffs roll on until the Thunder, ultimately, are eliminated. Durant doesn’t have any help. Not enough, anyway. Not without Russell Westbrook — a shoot-first point guard who may not be the best possible sidekick on a team with a scorer like Kevin Durant, but who damn sure makes the Thunder better than they’ve been in two games in Houston. The Thunder won Game 3, but only after blowing a 26-point lead and only because Durant had 41 points and 14 rebounds. The Thunder were just like Durant’s college team at Texas, a one-man show, in Game 3. And they were the same thing in Game 4. If Durant had any help at all — any quality help, I mean — this series would be over.”
Ben Golliver of SI.com: “The issue wasn’t Jackson’s misses, or even his willingness to take the threes, but rather the Thunder finding themselves in dire need of Westbrook’s ability to force the opposing team’s defense to play on its heels with his ability to get into the paint and get to the foul line. On the whole, Jackson performed admirably, scoring 18 points and dishing three assists, but he isn’t the commanding presence that can get to the line when things are going south like Westbrook. Oklahoma City has compensated by turning over the “need some points” duties to Durant, who got to the line 15 times. It’s still an effective approach with one All-Star rather than two, but meaningfully less so.”
Berry Tramel: “By the fourth quarter, the Thunder was playing big-time defense again — Houston scored just 14 points in the final period and made just five of 14 shots. The Rockets committed eight turnovers in the final quarter. That’s the way the Thunder must win now. Its defense has to be elite. Supreme. Westbrook is gone. He no longer can bail out the Thunder when Durant is off or surrounded by an angry mob of defenders. You can’t ask Durant to be a magician every night, every final minute. The Rockets would have run all five guys at Durant if necessary and seemed to in the final play.”
Darnell Mayberry: “How much does the Thunder miss Russell Westbrook? In the last two games, OKC has scored a total of 15 fast break points. Fifteen! This coming from a team that has averaged 16.6 fast break points this season, fifth most in the league. In the first two games, the Thunder scored 45 points in transition. The team had 21 in Game 2 alone. Brooks has made it a point to slow down the offense, but the Thunder either is no longer getting as many opportunities or simply turning them down. In each of the past two games, the Thunder has had just four fast break opportunities. After two nip-and-tuck affairs perhaps it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Instead of slowing the game down, maybe the best way for the Thunder to overcome Westbrook’s absence is to speed the game even more. Shift it into overdrive and stop putting so much additional pressure on role players to perform in halfcourt sets that, historically, haven’t been the Thunder’s strong suit even when healthy.”
