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Kevin Durant's Last Free Throw Was A Good Idea With Poor Execution

2012-05-17T04:43:47Z

It's probably a good thing there was pretty much no time left. This is all irrelevant, but watching Kevin Durant's second free throw, after Steve Blake missed on the other end, effectively ending the Lakers' changes, was pretty great. The free throw wasn't great. But the visuals were.

His first attempt looked normal and was nothing but net. This gave the Thunder a two-point lead. And then there's the second free throw...

Pretty obvious he's trying to miss on purpose. But ... woopsiedoodle. Gotta hit rim. I guess it was a swish, at least!

For more on the Lakers, head over to Silver Screen And Roll and SB Nation Los Angeles. For more on the Thunder, head over to Welcome To Loud City.

Thunder Vs. Lakers, NBA Playoffs 2012 Game 2: Final Score, OKC Downs L.A., 77-75

2012-05-17T04:41:56Z

The Oklahoma City Thunder's offense was atrocious in the second half of Game 2 against the Los Angeles Lakers. They managed just 12 points in the third quarter and, with just two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, they had scored only eight points in that period. Offensively, they couldn't have been much worse.

Then, a combination of inspiration and a Kobe Bryant meltdown completely altered the course of the game. Oklahoma City mounted a furious comeback in the closing minutes, coming from seven points down with 2:08 remaining to win 77-75, taking a 2-0 lead in the series.

Kevin Durant and James Harden were quiet, but came up huge when their team needed them most. They made two shots each during a 9-0 run, with three of their four made field goals coming after Bryant made a mistake on the offensive end. Harden scored twice on driving layups, while Durant had an easy transition dunk to go along with the basket of the game.

Throughout the fourth quarter, until the final two minutes, Oklahoma City's lack of a true point guard showed. They could only create jump shots before Harden started taking it hard to the basket, and Durant seemed to take some inspiration from his teammate in the final minute. He took the ball at the top of the arc and, in the absence of a point guard, became the point guard. Durant used a screen by Kendrick Perkins to lose Metta World Peace, went around Andrew Bynum with ease, then hit a shot in the face of Pau Gasol to give the Thunder the lead.

The performances that Harden and Durant put in for their team in the final two minutes stood in stark contrast with the performance put in by Bryant down the stretch. On four consecutive possessions, in order, Bryant did the following: Turned the ball over with a bad pass, mishandled a Steve Blake pass out of bounds, had a shot blocked and missed a panic three-pointer with five seconds remaining on the shot clock.

Despite this, the Lakers tried to inbound the ball to Bryant following Durant's eventual game-winner, on account of him being Kobe Bryant. The Thunder shut him off on the first inbound attempt, forcing a timeout. The Lakers got the ball to Bryant via Pau Gasol on their second attempt at an inbound, but Thabo Sefolosha intelligently fouled Bryant at the last possible second before he went into a shooting motion while the Thunder had a foul to give.

With 5.6 seconds on the clock, Kobe was the obvious man to run a play for, but he never got open. With World Peace inbounding, Russell Westbrook completely fell asleep defensively and left Blake wide open in the corner. Instead of looking for Bryant, World Peace made the reasonable decision to take the wide-open look the Lakers were gifted. Blake couldn't knock it down. A series of fouls and timeouts extended the game, but that miss effectively ended it.

Bryant's stats illustrate the infamous Kobe System at its best. He finished the night 9-25 shooting with 20 points. He did not score in the final six minutes of the game. Durant led all scorers with 22 points, and he shot the ball only 15 times. It was a poor all-around offensive game for both teams but, in the final two minutes, the Thunder found a way to create inside looks without a point guard or a dominant offensive big man, and that was ultimately the difference.

For more on the Lakers, head over to Silver Screen And Roll and SB Nation Los Angeles. For more on the Thunder, head over to Welcome To Loud City.

Lakers Vs. Thunder: How Did Steve Blake Shoot The Go-Ahead Shot?

2012-05-17T04:31:42Z

With the game on the line and the Los Angeles Lakers down by one point with five seconds left, they ran a play that somehow ended up with Steve Blake shooting a wide-open three-pointer in the corner. It missed, Kobe Bryant got pissed and they ended up losing.

Here's the play in real time.

But what exactly happened on that last play? Was Blake really supposed to get the ball over Bryant? Does Bryant have any right to be upset?

First of all: the play was not designed for Blake. Well, Blake may have been an option, but it was completely by happen-stance. The play was actually a very intricate one in which Bryant was to run off a backscreen by Pau Gasol and fade to the far corner. Metta World Peace was to throw a very difficult inbounds pass, and Bryant was going to shoot the ball off it. At least that's what I can glean from watching it several times.

Here's the important screenshot.

That's a very difficult pass for World Peace to make, but it's not impossible. Thabo Sefolosha is being picked off nicely by Gasol, which would have forced the Thunder to switch. There's a man in the paint, but Andrew Bynum would have prevented him from picking off the pass with a simple backscreen. Finally, World Peace had a clear passing angle ~~because Kevin Durant, for some reason, wasn't pressuring the ball~~.

UPDATE: As Sebastian Pruiti points out, Durant was out there to prevent Bryant from catching the ball on the wing outside the three-point line. That forced Bryant to try to go to the corner and run away from the ball.

However, World Peace decided to ad-lib. As you can see in this shot, Russell Westbrook is not even looking at Steve Blake. World Peace noticed this and decided to slip the ball to Blake while Westbrook wasn't watching. Here's another angle.

It's a calculated gamble by World Peace. The 30-foot crosscourt pass is a far tougher one than the simple 10-foot feed to Blake in the corner. On the other hand, he was passing to Blake, not Bryant.

Then again, it's not like Bryant tore up crunch time. The Lakers' star didn't score in the final six minutes and 30 seconds of the game and had already come up way short on two shots similar to the one he was likely to get had this play been run properly.

All things considered, World Peace can easily justify this decision. Blake had a wide-open shot, and you almost never get that in a late-game situation. Bryant won't like it, of course, but Blake hits that shot more often than Bryant would have hit the shot he was going to get as a result of this play.

For more on the Lakers, head over to Silver Screen And Roll and SB Nation Los Angeles. For more on the Thunder, head over to Welcome To Loud City.

Kobe Bryant, King Of Hero Ball

2012-05-17T04:08:09Z

Two very contested jumpers, one air ball, one bad miss, one lead blown for his team. But sure, LeBron James should be more like him.

Kevin Durant, Forcing Shots

2012-05-17T04:01:12Z

Reminder to everyone: Kevin Durant is just 23 years old. Sometimes, 23-year-olds force bad shots instead of using their gifts to get good shots.

Kevin Durant Is Now Guarding Kobe Bryant

2012-05-17T03:56:18Z

A couple months ago, a lot was made of Kevin Durant’s defense on LeBron James. Prepare for a lot to be made of this game, because Durant has now switched onto Kobe Bryant.

Thunder Might Want To Try Fewer High Pick-And-Rolls

2012-05-17T03:49:15Z

The jig is up, now that the Lakers have adjusted their defense. It might be time for the Thunder to start diversifying their offense instead of thinking they can win just by running 500 high pick-and-rolls.

They’ll always run those plays, of course, given their talent, but they can no longer expect to just roll the ball out, space the floor and get easy shots. Time for Scott Brooks to earn his money.

Not Seeing This Lakers Lineup Again

2012-05-17T03:46:21Z

The Lakers began the fourth quarter with a lineup of Ramon Sessions, Matt Barnes, Metta World Peace, Jordan Hill and Pau Gasol. I don’t think we’ll ever see that lineup again.