Kevin Durant Sick of Spurs Questions
Kevin Durant was just three minutes into his 10-minute session with reporters Wednesday when he grew a bit testy.
Of the first seven questions lobbed at him, Durant was forced to field five about the San Antonio Spurs.
And he didn’t like it. Didn’t like it one bit.
Once that fifth question came — a reasonable query about what he anticipates from the Spurs defensively against him — Durant tried to supply an answer but soon found himself swerving off script.
“I’m just going to play my game,” Durant started. “I can’t really think about how those guys are going to defend me. They’re a tough defensive group. But every question is about how the Spurs are going to come and how the Spurs are going to play. But you got to ask me how we’re going to come at them. We’re a tough team as well. We come out and play hard. We have a lot of weapons as well. I know they’re the No. 1 seed, they’re a tough group and they haven’t lost in a couple of months but I think that we bring another dimension to the table as well. And we can come out and compete.”
Durant has a point.
Most every question players and Thunder coach Scott Brooks faced Wednesday was about how they were going to stop the Spurs. Not once did anyone, including yours truly, inquire about how they Spurs would stop them.
Of course, there’s a reason for that. As Durant said, the Spurs are a tough group. They’re the No. 1 seed and the hottest team in basketball. And they just so happened to trounce the Thunder twice long before they got rolling in the final month of the regular season.
Wednesday’s media session was nothing more than a microcosm of the basketball world’s widespread belief in the Spurs. Few will pick the Thunder to win this series. Oklahoma City, to many, just seems to be out-manned.
Still, the Thunder’s unwavering confidence was on full display Wednesday, with Durant’s brief retort representing his team’s self-belief.
Durant wanted questions about his team, so I asked about his team.
What makes you confident, I asked, against the Spurs? Where do you feel like you have the advantage?
“I just think we play hard,” Durant said. “We’re athletic. I didn’t say we were going to come out and dominate those guys. But I said that we can compete, of course. We can move the ball. I think cutting down on turnovers has been great for us these last couple of series. Also, just getting out and getting stops and trying to get easy points.”
All good answers.
But none are quite good enough to keep the Thunder from walking into the Western Conference Finals on Sunday night in San Antonio as the underdog. Must be a rude awakening for Durant. In the span of three weeks he’s seen his team transform from the darlings of the postseason and a heavy favorite in its prior two series to second fiddle. It’s as if he senses that few outside of Oklahoma believe the Thunder can win.
Before walking over to local reporters, Durant had just finished a sit-down interview with TNT, which sent bulldog sideline reporter Craig Sager to town as part of its coverage team. No telling what was asked in that closed-door meeting. But there’s a good chance Sager stuck a mic on Durant and inquired about everything from the Spurs’ regular season series win over the Thunder to San Antonio’s history of excellence.
Maybe that’s what the Thunder needs going into this West final: a chip, an edge, a supply of just a little more motivation.
And maybe all of it might stem from mounting skeptics now gushing over the Spurs.
-DM-
Oklahoma City Thunder: More Eskimo Joe’s comparisons
Thunder Alley will return to being a pre-game festivity only. No more watch parties on the giant screen on Reno Avenue. I don’t know what other option the city had. The answer clearly was beefing up the police on duty, but the city can’t afford that. It’s not any more complicated than that.
The truth is, the atmosphere around Thunder Alley changed for the worse the larger the event became. I’ve heard tons of accounts from people Monday night who noticed a distinct change. It became a little scary. Even a lot scary. That’s independent of the shootings that occurred after the game, three blocks east over in Bricktown.
So a cool concept has gone the way of the wind. Earlier Wednesday, I blogged about the similarities between Thunder Alley and the Eskimo Joe’s anniversary celebration, which was discontinued in 1993 for much the same reasons. You can read that here.
After my blog, I got a response from Norman McNickle, who in 1993 was Stillwater’s chief of police and now is its director of public safety. Here’s what McNickle said:
“It is a shame that a few can ruin what are otherwise fine events by their bad actions. I actually spoke with others about the comparison between Thunder Alley and Eskimo Joe’s anniversary. Eskimo Joe’s event had a relatively peaceful ‘reunion’ atmosphere early in the evening. As time passed, it became clear the makeup of the crowd turned from predominantly ‘Stillwater and OSU Alumni’ to more unsavory elements between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. Assaults, intoxication, arsons, vandalism, theft and other criminal activity increased exponentially after 11 p.m. Attendance by gang members increased significantly. As years passed, more and more armed people were removed from the crowd until the shooting in 1993 ended the event. After 11 p.m., there seemed to exist an ‘anything goes’ attitude in the event area.
“Over the years, we increased our staffing from using (at that time) all 70-plus Stillwater officers, all of OSU PD’s 30-plus officers and ultimately hired an additional 100 deputies from Tulsa County. Even with this large staffing level, we were unable to provide sufficient resources to safety police the event.
“I sincerely sympathize with OKC PD and the other officials who must decide the future of Thunder Alley. Beyond encircling Thunder Alley (or Eskimo Joe’s) with fences and gated entrances with metal detectors, it is impossible to prevent unsavory or armed attendees. And I don’t know that those involved in the shooting were ever at Thunder Alley. This same fact circumstance applied to the Joe’s event. Regardless, the groups became intermingled, and law enforcement is responsible to attempt to maintain order in a large area.
“My wife and I have become Thunder fans, attended games, and enjoyed the atmosphere both in the arena and in Thunder Alley. Once again, it is sad to have to consider ending otherwise great events due to the actions of a few. It is a sad commentary on our society.”
Oklahoma City Thunder: More Thunder Alley perspective
I got an interesting email Wednesday morning from Jay Crabb, who is a tax analyst over in Tulsa and occasionally writes me. He was responding to my column in the Wednesday Oklahoman about the shootings in Bricktown after the Thunder-Laker game. You can read that column here.
Anyway, here is Jay’s email:
“I was reflecting on the goings on Monday night in Bricktown. It reminds me of my college days from OSU. The old Eskimo Joe’s anniversary weekend draws an eerie comparison. That was a great weekend to drive back up to Stillwater, see and hang out with friends for the weekend that we hadn’t seen since May and get excited about the upcoming term. A shooting ended that tradition back in 1993. It, too, had grown to such large proportions that neither the City of Stillwater nor the Eskimo Joe’s staff could control. My memory of the actual shooting and the location is fuzzy, but I thought it was up north of town (Forty North apartments maybe?) and wasn’t a part of the actual party crowd. I had graduated (1992) and left school by the time that incident came about and didn’t make the trek back over to the 1993 festivities. The Eskimo Joe’s weekend is a shell of its former self, but probably, in hindsight, for the better. Stan Clark can probably tell you that, too.
“I’m not saying I’m against Thunder Alley, as I LOVE seeing that kind of support for the team and it’s a great concept. I just see it from the perspective of liability and crowd control. I must be getting older…maybe wiser?”
Jay has its facts largely correct. Eskimo Joe’s own website touts the anniversary celebration as starting in 1976, then really exploding in 1985, when the party spilled into the streets.
“Over the next eight years Joe’s weekend became the single largest attraction to Stillwater, except for OSU football,” the web site says. “The massive street party drew thousands, literally covering Elm Street from Duck Street on the east, to the OSU campus and Gardiner Hall on the west. People came back from all over the country, and the media took notice, covering the entire event with satellite trucks and television cameras.”
But in October 1992, Eskimo Joe’s owner Stan Clark called a team meeting to discuss a variety of problems with the event: increasing crowds, costs and violence. Stillwater estimated that the crowds had grown from about 10,000 to 61,000.
Then-Stillwater police chief Norman McNickle said the event outstripped his department’s ability to provide protection. And in 1992, McNickle said police confirmed the presence of gang members from metropolitan areas. Which is similar to what I wrote in the Wednesday Oklahoman. Troublemakers follow the crowds.
After that town meeting, Eskimo Joe’s staged one more anniversary bash. An estimated 65,000 attended. A man was shot, allegedly by gang members, near the street party. A day or two later, Stan Clark announced he would discontinue the anniversary celebration.
“It’s just outgrown itself. ” Clark said. ”We have determined the whole community doesn’t want that type of activity here, and it just seems like the only logical reaction for me and our organization to take at this point. It’s a sad thing that so few people can disrupt something that’s been so special to so very many people.”
Fast forward that quote 19 years and 60 miles south.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Fandom extends to Down Under
My phone rang at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday. I glanced at the number, seemed to be a 612 area code, which I didn’t recognize, but I answered.
It wasn’t a 612 area code. It was a call from Australia. A woman named Sarah. And she sounded pure Aussie. I’ve never received a phone call from Australia, but there’s a first time for everything.
Sarah just wanted to talk to someone about the Thunder. She still was fired up about the series conquest of the Lakers.
“I’m a huge fan of the Thunder,” she said. “It’s been such a great ride.”
These kinds of stories keep popping up. I’ve told you about my daughter and niece, not even novice sports fans but ga-ga over the Thunder. I got a text from a friend, whose grandmother is one of those grand Pentecostal women who wears her hair in a bun. The text was a photo of his grandmother, with her hair in the bun, watching the Thunder play while wearing some kind of smock with “Durant 35” on the back.
Now a call from Australia. Sarah’s husband is from Oklahoma. His family still is here. Sarah and her husband watch the Thunder all they can on ESPN and NBA League Pass. I suppose I could have figured out that NBA League Pass extended all the way to Australia, but it certainly never occurred to me.
Sarah and her husband are coming to Oklahoma in two weeks for a visit. They are hoping the Thunder remains alive, so they can catch an NBA Finals game at the ‘Peake.
“All the coverage has been great,” Sarah said. “Congratulations on it all. I’m a huge fan. I just can’t go to bed (it was 11 p.m. in Australia). I had to talk to someone. And hopefully you guys are going to get some rest.”
Thunder: Heartsick after postgame shooting
Stepping out of The Peake and onto Reno Avenue after these late-night Thunder playoff games is usually an exhale moment for me.
The work night is done. The deadline is over. The adrenaline is dying down.
Whew.
When I hit the doors at the arena and cross Reno is when I feel it. It’s always dark. It’s usually quiet, save a few workers cleaning up the last remnants of Thunder Alley. It’s almost like I have a bit of the city all to myself, and it feels fantastic.
But last night, it felt the opposite of fantastic.
Leaving the arena around 1:15 a.m., the first thing I did was glance east down Reno Avenue. What I saw three blocks away was unlike anything I’d witnessed before. The street was awash in red and blue lights from what looked like a dozen police and emergency vehicles. They were still working a crime scene that was the result of a shooting right after the game.
Eight people were shot, one critically.
What an awful end to a glorious night.
The Thunder had just beaten the storied Lakers, bouncing Kobe and the boys, sending them home to L.A. after only five games. It was such a splendid moment, but not only for the franchise but also for the city. Oklahoma City besting Los Angeles? How often do we get to say that?
Then to have a few knuckleheads spoil our fun?
It breaks my heart.
Makes me mad, too.
Oklahoma City didn’t deserve this black eye. This city has worked too hard and come too far to have a couple numbskulls mess it up. Obviously, the vast, vast majority of fans who were downtown Monday night were on their best behavior, but that’s not what the national sports talk shows were jabbering about. That’s not what sports fans from all over the country were reading about; our story about the shootings had more hits on NewsOK.com than the rest of our Thunder content combined.
It boils my blood.
Listen, I understand that Oklahoma City is not immune to knuckleheadedness. No city is. But please, please, please tell me that this is a one-time thing. We haven’t seen such madness after Oklahoma football games or Oklahoma State basketball games. Heck, until Monday night, we hadn’t seen anything close to this after Thunder games.
I would prefer to go back to those dark, quiet streets that have always greeted me after Thunder games.
All of Oklahoma City should want that, too.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Missing the Lakers
Thunder-Spurs for the Western Conference Finals is going to be something. Most pundits already are proclaiming it the NBA Finals.
You’ve got the Thunder organization’s desire to be all things Spurs. You’ve got the Riverwalk copycatting. You’ve got the lovable, laudable superstars in Tim Duncan and Kevin Durant.
But before we focus on all things San Antonio, can I take this moment to say one thing. I’m going to miss the Lakers.
What a fun team to watch and a fun team to cover. Let us count the ways.
Metta World Chaos
At the very least, you have to admit, he was fun to beat. I think he was a blast to watch and a blast to talk to. Chaos always says interesting things.
Here was Chaos after Game 5 Monday night: “Let’s give Oklahoma some credit first. Let’s not complain about fouls. How many were called in the history of the NBA. One thousand? Two thousand? Let’s give Oklahoma credit. They were the better team.”
Chaos said he tried to put the elbowing of James Harden behind him. But Harden didn’t seem to have put it behind him, and who can blame him? And the referees didn’t put it behind them. I was waiting for the refs to have to make a decision on Chaos’ actions, and sure enough, it finally happened in Game 5. When Chaos fouled Thabo Sefolosha hard on breakaway layup, the refs were forced to decide. They decided on the side of law and order. The U.S. Constitution would have protected Chaos, but the bill of rights doesn’t hold water in an NBA game. Chaos was hit with a flagrant foul, then got a technical foul when he complained. Sometimes, your past does catch up to you.
“During the the playoffs, like I said on my website, it’s hard for me,” Chaos said. “I’ve got guys like Elton Brand and Al Harrington who are my best friends. I don’t talk to them in the game. Imagine guys I don’t even know.”
Chaos said he told Harden after the series, “great job … James is a really good player.”
Kobe Bryant
He’s a maddening player. For the series, Kobe averaged 31.2 points a game. But he shot just 42.6 percent from the field, and that’s with his 18-of-33 dynamic performance Monday night. Then after the game, Kobe speaks in this low, passionless voice. But his eyes are shooting arrows.
I don’t know how you build a team concept around Kobe. I also don’t know how the Lakers possibly could try to build without him. And you can’t take your eyes off him during the game. He makes it convenient for you by always having the ball. I do know this. Thabo Sefolosha is pleased to have Kobe in his rearview mirror.
Andrew Bynum
Speaking of which, Bynum is glad to be rid of Kendrick Perkins.The Laker 7-footer averaged 16.6 points a game in the series but made just 30 of 69 shots. Perkins took Bynum to the woodshed night after night.
After Game 5, Laker coach Mike Brown even admitted that Perkins outworked Bynum. “Obviously, this last game was the worst game I played in the playoffs,” Bynum said.
Bynum made the all-star team this season. That doesn’t mean you’d rather have him than Perkins on your team.
Pau Gasol
What a lovely man. He won that league citizenship award the other day. Might be the nicest guy in the NBA. And he’s won NBA titles being Kobe’s all-star sidekick, so we know he can play. But watching Gasol, you can tell frustration is building. How much longer will he be a Laker?
The Lakers are gone. The Spurs await the Thunder. The games might be better. No way will the Spurs be more interesting.
Thunder 106, Lakers 90
Nuggets from my notebook from Monday’s series-clinching win over the Lakers.
- I said 90 minutes before the game that if Andrew Bynum scored 30, the Lakers would win. But if Kobe Bryant scored 30, the Lakers would lose. Bynum finished with 10 points. Kobe finished with 42. The thought process was simple and has shown itself to be accurate time and time again. When the Lakers play as a team, they’re an awfully tough team to beat. But when Bryant goes one-on-five and plays hero ball, they’re an easy out. That’s what L.A. was tonight, and the writing was on the wall very early on.
- Kobe scored 15 of the Lakers’ 21 first-quarter points. That was the best thing that could have happened to the Thunder. OKC led 26-21 after the first period behind a balanced attack that saw seven players score. The Lakers got points from just two other players, four from Pau Gasol and two from Jordan Hill. There was no way, it seemed, that Kobe could keep up that pace. If he did, which he darn near did, the Lakers would lose. Plain and simple. It became clear long ago that Thunder is too good of a team to get beat by one player.
- With that said, Kobe tried the team thing. After calling out Gasol following Game 4, Kobe started this game by getting his power forward involved so he could have a chance to be more “assertive.” But Gasol seemed to be pressing early. He missed five of his first six shots and became part of the problem rather than the part of the solution. The Lakers’ foolish attempt at forcing Gasol into being more assertive wasted valuable early possessions and alienated Andrew Bynum. And both of those things benefited the Thunder.
- With Bynum not receiving touches, he became an afterthought, the forgotten man. If that didn’t take him out of the game, foul trouble surely did. He was whistled for his second foul with 4:44 remaining in the first quarter and was forced to sit for the remainder of the period. When Bynum returned in the second, he scored seven points in a 12-4 run by to put the Lakers up 35-32. Then he picked up his third foul with 5:24 left in the period and had to sit for the remainder of the second quarter. Finally, his fourth foul came 51 seconds into the third period, effectively making him play cautiously the rest of the night. The biggest threat to the Thunder in this series was always Bynum, not Bryant, and the Lakers never seemed to realize that.
- Bynum finished with 10 points and four rebounds in 35 minutes. If you’re a Lakers fan, you have to shake your head at that line. That should be a quarter for Bynum, not a game.
- The play of the game was made by Russell Westbrook. It came with just more than four minutes remaining in the third quarter. It happened when he intercepted a Ramon Sessions pass intended for Kobe and raced the other way. When Westbrook got to the free throw line, Sessions tried to wrap him up and prevent a shot attempt. No luck. Westbrook powered through the contact and got a runner to bank in for a three-point play opportunity. Westbrook made the ensuing free throw and gave the Thunder a 73-70 lead with 4:09 left in the period. It sparked a 25-7 run over the seven minutes. That was your ballgame.
- Thunder coach Scott Brooks on Westbrook’s improbable three-point play: “That was an amazing play. Obviously, there was a lot of luck to that. But he put himself in that position to get a little lucky there.”
- Westbrook on that shot: “Sessions grabbed me kind of early, and I just tried to throw it to the rim and luckily it went in. That kind of sparked us, and everybody else kept it going from there.”
- Actually, Westbrook kept it going. He scored 12 of the Thunder’s points during that 25-7 run before finishing with a team-high 28 points. Game ball goes to young fella.
- Brooks on the impact of that shot: “I thought from that point on, we really played with great energy on the offensive end. We moved the ball and we made shots.”
Read the rest of this entry »
OKC Thunder-Los Angeles Lakers Game 5 wrap up: in case you missed it
THUNDER 106, LAKERS 90 — Here’s our Game 5 coverage from the Thunder-Lakers series. Remember to follow us on Twitter at @NewsOKThunder and like us on Facebook to get all of this throughout the day. Looking for coverage from earlier in the series? Here it is: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4.
Pictures, pictures, pictures: Game 5 in Oklahoma City.
Pre-game:
Can the Thunder close the door on Lakers?
Thunder has learned how to come back and win games late
Game 5 set for 8:30 p.m. tip at Chesapeake Arena
Q&A: L.A. coach Mike Brown says âI thought they scored those 32 points very easily’
Thunder starters’ minutes grow; bench shrinks
If the Thunder eliminates the Lakers, enjoy it while it lasts
Post-game:
Thunder surges past the Lakers
Tramel: Thunder Nation is gushing over its ball team
Carlson: Ode to OKC’s big three — Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka, Nick Collison
Eliminated Lakers offer congrats to Thunder
Charles Barkley ‘can’t wait’ to come to Oklahoma City
Metta World Peace: ‘Let’s give Oklahoma City some credit …’
Thunder Bandwagon: Sights and sounds from Game 5 clincher vs. Lakers
Blogs:
Nuggets from Darnell Mayberry’s notebook
Mike Brown doesn’t coach Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant coaches Kobe Bryant.
Photo/video:
Live chats:
Power Lunch Chat with Darnell Mayberry
NBA Playoffs Live Chat: Thunder-Lakers Game 5
Thunder: You fans just keep impressing
The Thunder team plane returning from Los Angeles landed in Oklahoma City around 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
It would’ve touched down sooner but massive thunderstorms forced the plane to circle around the city for the better part of an hour.
But when the plane finally arrived, the team was greeted by a couple hundred fans. Thunder reserve big man Nazr Mohammed captured some video of the scene and posted it on his Twitter account. I posted it above. You’ll want to take a look.
Too bad you can’t see the faces of the fans because the folks who were out there deserve mad props.
First, it was 5:30 in the morning.
Second, because the plane was supposed to be in an hour or so earlier, you can guess that some of the folks had been out there for quite awhile.
And lastly, they were standing outside in the middle of a spring thunderstorm in Oklahoma. It was raining hard, and it was lightning like crazy. (And did we mention that these folks were crowded around a metal fence. Last I checked, Gary England did not approve of standing near a metal fence during a thunderstorm.)
This was a dedicated group of folks. Kudos to you, Thunder fans.
