Has Kevin Durant figured out Ron Artest?
Through the first eleven quarters of this Lakers/Thunder series, Ron Artest held Kevin Durant to 23-of-67 shooting (34%). Over the past five quarters — the 4th quarter of Game 3 and all of Game 4 — Durant has shot 10-of-19 (53%) from the field.
But it wasn’t Durant that was the difference in OKC’s 110-89 blowout win over the Lakers in Game 4. There were four other Thunder players in double digits: Russell Westbrook (18), Jeff Green (15), James Harden (15) and Eric Maynor (13). Harden has played especially well in Game 3 and Game 4, scoring 33 points in the two games after going 0-for-5 for nary a point in Game 1 and Game 2.
But can this young team take this fine play on the road and steal a game in L.A.? Only six teams in the league had more road wins than the Thunder, so the answer is yes they can. The real question is whether or not they will.
As for Artest, while he played pretty good defense for the first 11 quarters, he has been an absolute disaster on the other end of the court. He is averaging 7-3-2 and is shooting 30% from the field and just 13% from long range. This wouldn’t be so bad if he were taking just a few shots per game, but he has averaged 10 attempts from the field and almost six threes per game in the series. Even with a decent season percentage (35%), he has no business taking that many threes when he’s in this kind of a rut.
Most pundits thought that OKC wasn’t ready to push the Lakers to six or seven games, but since that question has already been answered, now it’s time to find out if they’re ready to pull the upset. They are younger, faster and more athletic than the Lakers, but L.A. has the experience. Which will win out?
Game 5 in L.A. is on Tuesday.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
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Posted in: Fantasy Basketball, NBA
Tags: 2010 NBA Playoffs, Kevin Durant, Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Ron Artest
I guess the question to ask here John is whether or not Durant would have scored more points if the Lakers had kept Ariza.
Would they Lakers have put up more points with Ariza? Probably. But how many more points would Durant have scored without Artest covering him?
Either way, not looking good.
Ariza is a good defender too, and that was his role with the Lakers. He’s more athletic and quicker and theoretically a better matchup with Durant. Against HOU, Durant averaged 22.5 points, 47% shooting and 23% from 3PT. Most importantly, HOU defended him w/o fouling. He averaged just 4.5 FTA in four games, well off his 10.2 FTA on the season.
I don’t if Ariza was covering him in those games — Battier played in the first three matchups. Maybe a Rockets fan can tell us how they matched up with Durant.
Those are good points. I wonder if they’ll switch it up, but I have no idea who they could use instead. Maybe they could take Kobe out of the offensive picture (not gonna happen) and just stick him on Durant, hoping that referees won’t be too hard on either of them in terms of fouls so as to keep the two main draws in the game. (What a sneaky, sly maneuver, from the head of a Laker fan, of course!)
With Kobe expending all his energy on Durant, the Lakers could focus on pounding the ball down low with Gasol, Bynum and Odom, and occasionally dishing it out to Brown/Farmar and Kobe on the wings. We’ll see, but the Lakers definitely needs to win tomorrow night. I don’t like the idea of them playing under pressure as I think Kobe assumes it’s his duty to take control of the game and subsequently take bad shots.
I can’t believe how old the Thunder are making the Lakers look. Hope they can do it on the road. It will be sooo funny to see Phil lose his first series after taking a 1-0 lead with Kobe being his top dog.
Trust me, when this goes back to LA, I think you’re going to see a differnet Lakers team take the floor. Kevin D is a GREAT player and, I think, already destined for the HoF. But, this isn;t the year of the Thunder.