NBA: Thunder; Heat, or the Celtics?
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“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.
NBA: The Oklahoma City Thunder grabs a lead early on and usually stays ahead. When this doesn’t happen, the Thunder comes from behind quickly, restoring a leading position. So, what’s their mojo about? What is it that has taken the Thunder so far? How have they come to be Western Conference champions? Certain phrases come to mind: “Keeping it simple, with nothing added, nothing that can be done without,” and: “Holding it all together.” By the former is meant “elimination of movements that aren’t essential to the team’s primary purpose,” which is to move the basketball efficiently and score points, and prevent the other team from doing so.
In effect, there’s a major Thunder focus, one idea: sending that basketball through the hoop as quickly as possible, thus “economy of movement,” nothing extra thrown in, and making sure that the oppositon fails at that job.
As to the latter phrase cited above, by shooting, rebounding, blocking, assisting, passing and outpacing the opposition, all above margins of excellence, the Thunder remains hard to define; they’ve become “a blur of everything that’s right,” while so many other teams can be characterized by a star shooter who carries most of the weight, or by a center/forward’s exceptional height, or by an unstoppable duo or trio, allowing clear definition of what they can do and cannot do. Revealed among those teams are signatures of their strengths and vulnerabilities, of that which a team like the Thunder can weaken and prevent.
Yes, the Thunder’s Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are a cut above their teammates, but they are rarely disconnects; they link within the confines of established and even improvised plays. In other words, the Thunder’s well-roundedness, the team’s sharpened “multiple” skill sets, keeps them from being “figured out”, from being “psyched,” making it hard for opposing teams to know exactly what to attack.
As one analyst puts it, “the Thunder places many tigers in the ring, all smart and quick, all exceptionally efficient.”
However, the Thunder isn’t perfection---during the Western Conference finals, the team fell behind the San Antonio Spurs by two games, prior to winning the four that qualified them for the 2011/12 NBA Finals, which will be against the Eastern Conference winning franchise (either the Boston Celtics or the Miami Heat as a result of Saturday’s game seven of the Eastern Conference series). When the Thunder loses a game it’s from total team deflation, rarely the fault of any one player or because of a single player’s absence. A rational take is that probably any combination of today’s Eastern Conference players would have a hard time stopping the Thunder, even if Boston’s Kevin Garnett , Ray Allen and Paul Pierce were to join LeBron James, Dywane Wade and Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat as a five + one combo.
The Thunder may not have as many experienced stars as the Celtics and Miami
Eastern Conference. Last night, the Heat pulverized the Celtics, 98-79, LeBron James surpassing previous post-season performances, evading the Celtics defense and accruing 45 points. A similar LeBron-led offense on Saturday could make it difficult for the Celtics to obtain the Eastern Conference crown. But it wasn’t just LeBron’s masterful drives and his shooting that put the Heat so far ahead of the Celtics on Thursday. Boston ’s Paul Pierce was kept from contributing effectively---only nine ppg, and Boston
So---it’s at the wire now, game seven, and key for a Celtics win is holding LeBron to no more than 30 ppg. For the Heat, it’s helping LeBron repeat Thursday’s performance.
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