In case you missed the 1st part of these articles, I basically gave a glowing compliment to Oklahoma City Thunder Head Coach Scott Brooks. Well now, it's his players turn, especially Kevin Durant.
Enough cannot be said about the display Kevin Durant put on Wednesday night against the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs came out and punched them in the mouth but the Thunder kept battling back, lead by Durant, and finally caught up to San Antonio to give them their finishing move. OKC's Mortal Kombat-esque finishing move stems from their Big 3, with Kevin Durant being Liu Kang. During Oklahoma City's four game winning streak to close out the series, Durant, Westbrook, and Harden shot an incredible 56% from the field combined and tag that along with the amount of free throws those three shoot, OKC's got all the offense they need. But wait, hold on, am I seeing that the Thunder have more to their offense than just those three kids? Yes, I believe I am. In the 4th quarter of Game 6 the Thunder ran a pin-down play that they love to run four times. Those four pin-down plays ended in 10 crucial points for the Thunder in the 4th of the clinching Game 6. Now my point is, is that those 10 points came off of 4 different options, from 4 different players. Not one of those players was named Kevin, Russell, or James. It was Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins, Derek Fisher, and Thabo Sefolosha. That is utterly ridiculous.
The Thunder had a great 4th that helped them secure the win, and the MVP of the night, Kevin Durant, did not hit a single field goal in the 4th quarter. Durant took 16 free throws in that 4th quarter, making 8 of them, which I say was due to the fact that he played every single minute of that game. In the post-game press conference, the conservative Gregg Popovich had this to say about the Thunder and Durant's play, "This OKC team is the hardest we've had to guard during my tenure here. Nobody has had a weapon like Kevin Durant." So wait, Gregg Popovich, one of the greatest coaches in the history of the NBA, is saying that not even the Kobe & Shaq Lakers, Dirk's Mavs, Nash's Suns, or any other Western Conference foe or evn any Eastern Conference team he played in the Finals during his tenure in San Antonio has had a weapon like Kevin Durant? That is pretty awesome that we are getting to watch that player in our lifetime, and oh yea, he's 23 years old.
Searching through the history of the NBA today I noticed two things. One is that the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Mavericks, the Lakers, and the Spurs to reach the NBA Finals, and those three teams make up 3 of the last 4 NBA Champions, and the last 13 WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS. And secondly, based on the history of the NBA, 94.2% of teams that are up 2-0 in a series advance. So if my math (or ESPN's math) is correct, that would mean that the probability that the NBA Finals would be Oklahoma City-Boston is 0.3%, or a 3-in-1,000 chance. I may be wrong but it looks like we're 50% there.
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