Oklahoma City Thunder: Is Kevin Durant the new Closer King? - NewsOK.com (blog)

on May 18, 2012M at 10:30 am

Lost in the revelry of the Thunder’s comeback victory over the Lakers in Game 2 Wednesday night was this question: Did we see the passing of the mantle for the NBA’s Closer King? Did it go from Kobe Bryant to Kevin Durant?

Kobe melted down in the final two minutes, then failed to get open with five seconds on an inbounds pass. When the Lakers called timeout and got another chance, Mike Brown changed the play, sending Kobe on a flare to the backside, which frankly is a gotcha play. Try to catch the Thunder in some kind of mixup. Didn’t happen, and Metta World Chaos instead inbounded to Steve Blake, who missed a good-look 3-pointer.

Meanwhile, Durant made the play of the night, with his drive to a running one-hander, a 7-foot shot that rolled around and in to give the Thunder a 76-75 lead with 18 seconds left. It wasn’t a last-second shot, ala his game-winner to beat Dallas in Game 1 three weeks ago, but still. Clutch city.

And with Kobe’s status as Mister Clutch taking a beating â€" the widely-reported 0-for-7 in shots that would give the Lakers the lead or a tie in the final 24 seconds of playoff games the last five years â€" Durant suddenly is ready to assume the role.
Here’s what Thunder fans have to love about Durant’s 2012 playoff heroics. Both have come via aggression. A pullup jumper against Dallas; a drive against LA.

Against the Lakers, Kendrick Perkins set a screen for Durant, 25 feet from the basket, and 7-foot center Andrew Bynum switched over to Durant. That was Durant’s signal to drive, and he went around Bynum rather easily and got to the baseline. Another 7-footer, Pau Gasol, awaited, and Durant lofted a soft shot that rolled around and fell in.

“Kevin made a great play,” said Scotty Brooks. “There’s a lot of growth in Kevin’s play. He’s attacking the basket and trying to get something going south instead of settling for a jumpshot.”

Brooks said the Thunder initially had a called play, but like so often in the NBA, “then it became a freelance, a random, just-attack play. I give him a lot of credit. We have some structure in the organized chaos. But the structure was, the big always runs into a screen quickly, try to get some separation, then our ballhandler attacks. And Kevin did a great job attacking, getting to the baseline. That was a terrific shot. That was not an easy shot, to get over his defender and shoot over Gasol.”

Not so long ago, the Thunder â€" not the Thunder, Durant â€" seemed to settle for 21-footers at the end of games.
“Twenty-one? I’ll take 21; 28, 30,” Brooks said of the deep shots. But that’s now changed. “I think it’s a collection of all of our work. Kevin, our coaches, myself, just talking, watching and understanding what late-game situations are all about. He’s a developing player. Sometimes I forget that he’s only 23, because he’s very mature, he plays at such a high level. But he’s still understanding the game.

“Not that I’m saying he’s never going to shoot a long jumpshot, because sometimes it might be there, and he’s such a great shooter and has a deep range, he can take that shot. But it’s always good to drive and explore that opportunity first, then rely on that (deep shot) next.”

-------------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.

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