Dallas Mavericks 85 — Oklahoma City Thunder 84
In a capsule, we witnessed tonight why Oklahoma City isn’t generally regarded in the same class as Golden State, San Antonio, and Cleveland. What we witnessed was dumb basketball by the Thunder allowing Rick Carlisle to slow the game down, muck it up, play physical, and steal Game 2 on the road against an Oklahoma City team which quite frankly is a bit of a dunce as a team.
I ‘ve loved Durant ever since he said those things to his mother during his MVP speech, but let’s be candid — he and Russell Westbrook still struggle with the concept they have other players on their team.
The stats in this game are beyond glaring, they’re obscene. Billy Donovan should be cited for coaching malpractice for what transpired tonight in Oklahoma City.
Dallas was without Chandler Parsons, David Lee, JJ Barea, and Deron Williams was a game time decision with a serious abdominal injury. To Williams’ credit, he did start and scored 13 points in 26 minutes, but was not able to finish the game. But Williams was instrumental in getting Dallas off to a positive start.
Back to the numbers. As a team, Oklahoma City went 31-92 from the field. Durant and Westbrook went a combined 15-55, while the rest of the Thunder team went 16-37. More glaring, OKC’s capable three bigs of Ibaka, Adams, and Enes Kanter went 10-20 from the field, but had trouble getting touches from the two stars.
Keep this in mind, this is not a Dallas squad with the likes of Dikembe Mutumbo or Patrick Ewing protecting the rim. For crying out loud, they don’t even have Tyson Chandler. This Mavs’ team has rim protectors named Zaza Pachulia, Salah Mejri, and Dwight Powell manning the paint, yet OKC kept jacking threes to the tune of 7-32 on the night while their bigs didn’t touch the ball nearly enough.
So I guess my rhetorical question to Sam Presti would be…. why would you ever pay Enes Kanter $17 million a year if he’s never going to get the ball when it matters?
Here’s the problem in Oklahoma City as I honestly see it. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook operate under the illusion regular season basketball and post season basketball are the same thing. They aren’t. They’re completely different animals. Lower scores. More oriented towards defense and getting something out of every fourth quarter possession. Smart shot decisions. Smart adjustments from the bench.
Yet in OKC, it appears nothing is going to change. Even when OKC has an advantage inside and Kendrick Perkins’ hands of stone are in New Orleans — the ball doesn’t touch the bigs who all have capable hands and finishing ability. On a night when neither of the two stars could hit the Pacific Ocean if they were standing next to it, it didn’t appear they had any trust in their teammates.
Give Carlisle and his team a ton of credit though, they played smart and with heart. In the last minute Raymond Felton and Wes Matthews made big baskets, while Steven Adams’ putback off a missed Durant layup was ruled no good on the official review.
I had OKC winning this series in six and I still have them winning in six only because Dallas is an injury decimated team which played some guys very heavy minutes tonight. Barea might be done for the season. Williams will be playing hurt or limited for what’s left of the Dallas season.
But give Carlisle credit as the NBA’s second best coach, he got everything and then some out of his team tonight while Billy Donovan’s team was out thought and out hustled from the opening tip.
Rick Carlisle says ‘Game on’ now. Next two in Dallas where this team has virtually nothing to lose.
For those of us who never miss Thunder games, we’ve seen this before. Two man basketball. Two on five basketball. Hero basketball. It’s kind of sad, like watching a person with a substance abuse problem who can’t honestly come to terms with their problem. I feel like an enabler even blogging about it. I feel dirty.
Game 3 …Thursday night in Dallas.
Given the stunning outcome of the game, I changed my music video of the night to this.
Hard to beat these two guys though. Maybe Durant and Westbrook can glean something from this where Brooks and Donovan have fallen short. It’s a simple game, boys. Each team has five guys. Passing to the other three is allowed.
Durant-Westbrook Presser Following 2012 Game 5 Loss to the Miami Heat: I’m not really sure what’s been learned from a team concept in four years. Individual progress– yes. The way a team flows as one—I haven’t seen any real change in four years.