I can’t believe I had to write this as a headline even on a rogue blog. But what else can you write if you have a shred of honesty attached to your coverage of this team?
OKC had four days rest before Game 1. They were completely healthy. This is a team which did not make the playoffs last season. This is a team which rested its stars at the end of this regular season. This is a team which for various reasons has been the most underachieving team from a talent standpoint the past three seasons….and they loafed defensively, especially the two stars.
Chris Webber on the TNT telecast can talk all he wants about OKC’s pick and roll defense being the worst he’s ever seen, but at the core they loafed. They didn’t get back in transition defense against a Spurs team which is not noted for running a fast break offense. They committed four boneheaded fouls outside the three point line in the first half which Charles Barkley was correct in stating ‘is just stupid basketball.’
There didn’t seem to be much caring by either Durant or Westbrook. It’s one thing to see this in a meaningless regular season road game at Phoenix in late February, it’s quite another thing to see this in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals.
I get it. I’ve been watching the NBA since about 1964. There’s an unspoken culture within the NBA where it’s kind of okay to coast defensively during certain regular season games. For all we know, it may even be in small print in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement….’pursuant to Article 622 paragraph IV–loafing is allowed in designated regular season games’.
But are you kidding me about Saturday night?
It was just right there to see for all the world. OKC’s two stars loafed defensively. As I was watching I wondered what Scott Brooks and Kendrick Perkins were thinking to themselves since their main tasks while in OKC were to plead with the two stars to ‘run back faster’ and ‘play harder’.
I don’t ever really recall this ever being an issue with Michael or Scottie or Kobe or LeBron or even Kawhi. Real superstars. Honest two way basketball players bring their lunch box in the goal achieving portion of the season.
Talk all you want about benching Andre Roberson because he can’t shoot a basketball or tweaking the pick and roll defense, but if Durant and Westbrook don’t give a flip about playing defense then it doesn’t matter for OKC who starts at the shooting guard position.
There are certain things some fans tolerate. I’m certainly like that in some regards, but watching two stars loaf in Game 1 is not something I can turn my head away from.
Like I wrote yesterday, all things considered, Durant and Westbrook may need to get out of Oklahoma City and play for someone like Pop, Steve Kerr, or Rick Carlisle where a coach can talk to these two players with total job security intact.
Game 2 tonight in San Antonio. Hope we see some caring from the two stars.