Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant (35) looks to get the ball past Kobe Bryant (24) of L.A. during the NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the NBA playoffs at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, April 22, 2010. Oklahoma City won, 101-96. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman
Kevin Durant is within shouting distance of his third straight scoring title. He leads Kobe Bryant by 0.11 points per game, and each superstar has one game left. Because Kobe has played six fewer games than Durant, the math is not entirely cohesive. It comes down to this, basically: if Durant scores less than 30 points Wednesday night against Denver, then Bryant, who finishes Thursday night at Sacramento, has to outscore him by at least seven points. If Durant scores more than 30, then Kobe has to outscore Durant by at least six points.
I know, sounds funky. And here’s what’s really rich. If Durant scores 30, and Kobe scores 36, they end in an absolute dead heat, 28.0 points a game.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti said Tuesday night that Durant and the Thunder wouldn’t be focused on the scoring race. What’s fascinating about that statement is that the franchise that bred Presti and the Thunder Way, the Spurs, staged two of the most gross scoring duels in NBA history.
* On April 9, 1978, San Antonio’s George Gervin entered the final day of the season leading Denver’s David Thompson by 0.2 points a game, 26.8-26.6. Thompson played an afternoon game and scored 53 first-half points en route to 73 for the game, at the time the second-most in NBA history. Suddenly, Thompson was averaging 27.15 points a game. Gervin needed 58 points that night against the Jazz to win the title â€" and he got 63 to win the race.
* On April 24, 1994, San Antonio’s David Robinson entered the final game of the season needed 33 points to win the scoring race from Orlando’s Shaquille O’Neal. Robinson took 41 shots, made 26 and scored 71 points, to win the title in a breeze.
In Presti’s defense, his mentor, Gregg Popovich, had yet to take over the Spurs in either case. Pop arrived in May 1994. And it would seem hard to imagine the Spurs engaging in some kind of similar scoring duel under Popovich.
Durant’s bid to win the title was hurt Tuesday when Thunder coach Scotty Brooks rested his starters the entire fourth quarter of an eventual 118-110 victory over Sacramento. Durant had 32 points after three quarters and could have gotten into the 40s, in all likelihood.
But maybe Brooks is saving Durant for Wednesday night. Chances are the Thunder starters will rest again, to some degree, but should they? The Thunder-Kings game was meaningless in the playoff pecking order, but not so with Thunder-Nuggets. The Thunder surely would like to play Denver in the first round of the playoffs, rather than Dallas, and that bid could be helped by beating the Nuggets on Wednesday night.
Denver leads Dallas by a half game in the West standings. Whoever finishes ahead plays the Lakers; whoever finishes behind plays the Thunder. For all I know, those teams would rather play the slumping Thunder, though the Lakers without Metta World Chaos could struggle, too. Dallas seems a tougher draw for OKC, so the Thunder could help set up a playoff series against the Nuggets by beating the Nuggets on Wednesday night. And if that means more minutes and more points for Durant, all the better.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
No comments:
Post a Comment