By Zaheer E. Clarke
Written June 2, 2017
Published June 5, 2017
Last year, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors to claim the NBA title. This year, Kevin Durant will be the difference-maker for the Warriors.
Kevin Durant and LeBron James first Finals clash was the 2012 NBA Finals. How will the second meeting unfold?
(Source: Marques Says Blog)
Last Thursday, the 2017 NBA Finals begun the trilogy between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. The game was a re-introduction of Kevin Durant to the NBA Finals, after a five-year hiatus since the Oklahoma Thunder played LeBron James’ Miami Heat in the 2012 Finals.
Back in 2012, the Thunder battled the Heat with James Harden and Russell Westbrook, this year’s MVP front-runners, in tandem with Durant up against James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Thunder made easy work of the Western Conference that year, beating the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs on their way to the Finals. The Heat, surprisingly, were pushed through the playoffs by the Indiana Pacers and a tough-nosed Boston Celtics. Expectedly, Thunder was supposed to make light work of the Heat as well, even though, James, Wade and Bosh – two seasons earlier – were three of the top-4 players in the league in terms of player efficiency rating (PER). After the Thunder won game one of that series by 11 points, Heat stormed to the championship winning the next four games by a combined 31 points to give LeBron James his first NBA title and Final MVP crown.
The “Splash Brothers”, Klay Thompson (left) and Steph Curry (centre) were the engine of Golden State Warriors’ team in past seasons. Now Kevin Durant is the X-factor to their success.
This year, however, Durant’s new team, the Golden State Warriors won game one by 22 points on the back of a 38-point thunderous performance by Durant and a 28-point sniper effort from reigning two-time MVP, Steph Curry. Over the previous two seasons, the Warriors were famous for the ‘Splash Brothers’, Curry and Klay Thompson, hogging the headlines and game-high box scores in terms of points. With the addition of Durant this season, both Curry and especially Thompson have taken a step back on the offensive side in order to facilitate the former MVP and fourth on the all-time points per game leaderboard, Kevin Durant. Thompson has had a slow postseason and Thursday night was no different with him shooting, a lethargic, torrid and un-Thompson-like 3-of-16 from the field and 0-of-5 from downtown.
Nevertheless, impressive this season and especially in game one was the defensive effort by the entire Warriors team, but especially, Thompson and Durant. Durant and Thompson have been assigned primarily the Cavaliers’ two best players, James and Kyrie Irving and their defensive effort on those two have been outstanding. James, uncharacteristically, shot 9-of-20 from the field while Thompson held his opponents to 1-of-12 shooting when he was the primary defender.
Warriors not only play efficient offence but they also play incredible defence.
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, Pool)
After game one, many have handed the Warriors the NBA Championship and they would have all right to. With Warriors playing this intense stingy defence and executing their prolific wing offence with Durant at the apex of the attack, many would be remiss or downright crazy to bet against them. However, the memories of last year’s roaring comeback by the Cavs are still fresh in my mind. Warriors bludgeoned the Cavs by a combined 48 points over the first two games of the finals. They were up 3-1 after four games with the coronation awaiting their arrival. Tragically, they never arrived, as the Cavs charged to win the final three games and the 2016 NBA Championship. James’s teams have been the favourites in only two of the eight finals he has appeared in. And only once as favourites have they won the title, and that was against the 2013 Spurs.
James’s win last year and against the Thunder in 2012 were two of the instances that a James team overcome staggering pre-Finals odds to win the championship. Barring his first trip to the NBA Finals in 2007 with a no-name team of teammates against the Spurs, this year would be the biggest odds to overcome in an NBA Finals of his career. The difference, clearly, from the past two clashes with the Warriors, is the Durant factor, on both offence and defence.
Kevin Durant is now known not only for his offence but also for his unrelenting defence.
(Getty Images)
Compared to his time at the Thunder, Durant’s game has evolved from the shoot-happy seven-foot shooting guard/small forward to an imposing power forward/small forward hybrid who still dominates on the offensive side but has become a ferocious beast on the defensive side. His friendship and defensive understanding with Warriors’ Draymond Green, often called the cog in the Warriors championship wheels, has reduced the impact of losing Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut in the offseason.
In the past two Finals, LeBron James led his team in almost every statistical category, points, rebounds, assists and steals per game, as he would beat up on an average Harrison Barnes as a defender in the post and on the perimeter. This year, that has all changed and we have seen it from game one of the 2017 NBA Finals and also in the two regular-season matchups. Durant, with his almost 7 foot 5-inch wingspan and a 6-foot-9-inch 240-pound frame is not a pushover for LeBron James. Actually, it’s a challenge for him and the Cavaliers.
LeBron James was a statistical anomaly in 2016 NBA Finals.
(Source: Instagram/CBS Sports)
The Warriors can be beaten. And if Kyle Korver, J. R. Smith, Tristan Thompson, Kevin Love and the rest of the supporting cast of the Cavaliers get hot and the Warriors get cold, then we could be in for a repeat of the 2016 NBA Finals.
The difference and X-factor, however, to nullify LeBron James, Kyrie Irving or the Cavs is Kevin Durant. The Warriors were smart to sign him in the offseason. Durant was smart to sign with the ball-sharing Warriors. Let us see how the rest of the NBA Finals unfolds. So far, from the basketball purist point of view, the Warriors’ and especially Durant’s performance has been amazing. So amazing.
Golden State Warriors’ Kevin Durant (35) goes up for a dunk against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the first quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, June 1, 2017. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Let’s see how the series turns out.
Until next time…
© Zaheer Clarke
Zaheer E. Clarke is an award-winning freelance sportswriter, who once beat Kevin Durant in one-on-one basketball. Albeit, it was while using Michael Jordan on his Xbox 360.
He can be reached at zaheer.clarke@gmail.com. Follow him on Facebook at Zaheer Facts, Lies & Statistics, or on Twitter at @zaheerclarke.
This blog article was published in the Western Mirror on June 5, 2017.
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