As I expected, Oklahoma City took game seven on their home floor in front of an energetic crowd. Kevin Durant finally put on a Kevin-Durant-like show with 39 points (it was the opposite of game six… he started off cold and finished with a bang), and even Russell Westbrook’s ball hoggery (yes, I just said “ball hoggery.” No, I don’t know if it’s a word or not, and I’m not about to go check) couldn’t sabotage the effort. Ball hoggery? B-b-but, the man had 14 assists! WTF are you talking about?! Yeah, he did have 14 assists, but I still didn’t feel like he was all that effective in distributing the ball. He had five turnovers to go along with those 14 dimes, and he clunked 8 of 12 shots, many of which he shouldn’t have taken. There was one possession pretty early on that really made me wonder why Scott Brooks hasn’t verbally assaulted him yet. Westbrook was dribbling just inside the three-point line. There was someone posting up with pretty deep position, and he kinda looked at him, kept dribbling, looked at the basket, looked at his teammate again, and just when you thought he was going to do the right thing and make the entry pass… he fires a long two-pointer. Even Jeff Van Gundy pointed out what a stupid shot it was. After that, though, it was nothing but gushing over his triple-double from JVG, Mike Breen, and Mark Jackson. I guess it was the first game-seven triple-double since so and so did it in such and such a year, but I’m not even going to look the sh!t up because I wasn’t all that impressed… and you shouldn’t be either. Don’t believe the hype, he didn’t play that well. His work on the offensive boards was stellar–I’ll give the guy credit for that–but the 14 points and 14 assists? All I have to say about that is 4-12 and five turnovers.
Hey, look! It’s Desmond Mason!
That’s a pretty queer sweater, but D-Mase was my main man back in the day. In case you forgot, he was rather nasty…
…but so was his jumpshot, unfortunately; that’s probably why he’s a spectator at age 33 (while I was looking up his age, I noticed that he hails from a town called “Waxahachie,” TX. Just felt the need to point that out). Does anyone else remember that one or two year stretch that D-Mase spent with the Hornets early in the CP era, and how they’d go to him in the post every single game on the first two or three possessions? Ah, what I would give to go back to 2006…
Alright, back to the regularly scheduled program: So, like I said, Kevin Durant exploded for 39 points, but he wasn’t firing on all cylindars early on. He missed six of eight shots in the first quarter, and the only reason that the Thunder held a four-point lead is because Memphis couldn’t put the ball in the basket to save their lives. They missed their first five three-point tries, and I don’t even want to know what their FG percentage was–so I’ll just go with bad. The first half pretty much went on like this… neither team ever got anything going, but OKC had made it an eight-point game with a 42-34 lead at the half. As for the second half… well, OKC didn’t score for the first 2:30, so the Grizz had an excellent opportunity. They couldn’t take advantage, though… they missed their first couple shots of the third, and then the Thunder put it away. Kevin Durant started pouring in the points, and James Harden came off the bench and went ham to the tune of three consecutive triples…
…and that was pretty much the game. Memphis never got close in the fourth, and Harden had one more trick up his sleeve…
I was rooting for Memphis, but I have to admit, that was nice. Harden finished with 17 points, three assists, and four steals, and the final few minutes featured Nate Robinson and Royal Ivey sightings. I feel like Memphis lost this game for four reasons: couldn’t shoot, couldn’t rebound, couldn’t stop Durant or Harden, and couldn’t buy a whistle. They can’t control the officiating, obviously, but if they get two of the other three done? They probably advance. You do none of the above, though? You lose 90-105.
Following the contest, Z-Bo returned props to KD: ”Durant is a special player, one of the best players in the NBA. The kid is a gym-rat, he works hard. He’s one of my favorite players. You’ve got to give him kudos and give him respect.”
I’m going to miss watching Z-Bo. He had become my favorite player of this postseason. I guess that title now returns to DeShawn Stevenson, who will be attempting to gun down these Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. Will he get it done? I’m saying yes, in six. That’s an NBA247365.COM Guaransheed. My reasoning? I’m not impressed with the Thunder. Memphis gets a few calls and has a good shooting night? They win this series. Russell Westbrook is overrated. Kevin Durant has been proven to be a human being. James Harden doesn’t make everything he throws at the basket every single night. Kendrick Perkins still blows.
Dwyane Wade is a respected native of the City of Chicago. Taj Gibson doesn’t give a sh!t.
That’s how you take it to the f@ckin’ rack when a team is splattering your shots on the glass like bugs flying into a windshield. I’m not sure how many swats Miami had been credited for up to the point of this massive slam (10:41 in the 2nd), but it seemed like they had already reached their total of six that the box score lists. Chicago was having trouble getting shots around the rim early on. Miami wasn’t scoring particularly well either, but I’d say Chicago was the team which was stuggling more. It wasn’t that either team was playing poorly offensively. There’s bad basketball, and then there’s good defense. This was an example of good incredible defense. If we can take anything from game one, it’s that there won’t be any unearned points going on the board in this series. That makes Rose’s 28 and Bosh’s 30 that much more impressive. Ten of Rose’s 28 came in the third as Chicago took it from a tie game to a nine-point lead. Their bench then made it a double-digit lead, Rose came back and scored a few more buckets, and Taj Gibson put the icing on the cake…
Talk about dropping the f@cking hammer… he pounded that sh!t through the basket! I’m kind of pissed off at Mike Miller… why’d he have to go and snatch the ball before it bounced back up off the floor? I really wanted to see how high it would’ve gone.
Anyway, Chicago was actually out-shot in this game by about four percent, but four percent isn’t enough when you give up 19 offensive boards. That’s what Miami did, and it cost them dearly (the Bulls had THIRTY ONE second-chance points). Makes you wonder about Erik Spoelstra’s decision to go small for so much of the game, eh? I mean, what do you expect with James “Curious George” Jones playing the power forward? Big Z and Ericka Dampier weren’t even activated for this game, which was fine with me, because I don’t really care if Miami wins, and it meant that we got to see 10 minutes of Jamaal Magloire, who never fails to entertain (who saw that tip in of his own missed dunk?).
Chris Bosh was really the only Heater who did anything. As I said earlier, CB dropped 30 on 12-18, while D-Wade and LBJ combined for 33 on a-little-for-a-lot. I thought it was going to be Derrick Rose fighting to keep pace with D-Wade and LeBron. Instead, it was D-Wade and LeBron failing to match D-Rose and Luol Deng. That’s correct, Luol Deng out-scored LeBron by six points (and out-rebounded him, too). Miami isn’t winning any goddamn basketball game where Luol Deng out-plays LeBron James.
Said Erik Spoelstra: “We took it on the chin tonight.”
Pretty much. Question: if D-Rose leads these Bulls over these Heat, can everyone shut the F up about his field goal percentage and MVP award? I mean, seriously… Derrick got his share of help last night, but we all know Chicago doesn’t win basketball games where D-Rose doesn’t get the job done. I don’t really care what the stat sheet says; Derrick Rose is a boss. Period.
Rose had an extremely quiet 28 points, but the key was him stepping his game up at halftime. Funny how much hype he gets when he goes for 30+ on a horrible percentage, but when he facilitates the game damn near perfect like he did last night, almost nobody is talking about it.
I love your blog man!