Durant to face toughest "quantitative" challenge in Leonard

[Cry Havoc]

As game one between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder is set to tip off Monday evening, a key matchup between the two teams will be NBA MVP Kevin Durant, being defended by Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard. Two years ago when the two squads met in the Western Conference Finals, Durant averaged 29.5 points, shot 53.2% from the field, shot 9.3 free throws, grabbed 7.5 rebounds, and threw 5.3 assists in 42.8 minutes per game, against the Spurs in six games, with a rookie Leonard and Stephen Jackson defending him a majority of the series.

Fast-forward two years later, and on the eve of game one of the Western Conference Finals, a more developed version of Leonard on both sides of the ball, is about to take his shot at defending Durant in a new series...

Read more:
http://projectspurs.com/2014-articles/quantitatively-speaking-durant-to-face-toughest-challenge-in-spurs-leonard.html

[Stabula]

Indubitably!

[sananspursfan21]

Man I hope that's how it goes. If Leonard can keep Durant in the low 20s it sounds like we'll be in decent shape. It'd be insane if he could hold him to the teens

[Prime Time]

Kawhi has done a terrific job on the likes of LeBron, Rudy Gay, Carmelo Anthony, Paul George, Klay Thompson, etc. but Kevin Durant is a whole different kind of offensive animal. Kawhi's biggest strength is easily his size, which Durant wins against by a landslide. If we want any chance of Durant being contained - Kawhi needs to physical. You're not going to contest his shots often.

[cd98]

Well Tony Allen may beg to differ, but its true that Leonard will be much tougher than anything Durrant saw versus the Clippers.

[slick'81]

Yeah Durant straight fucked the spurs in 12 kawahi will remember that shit

[Cry Havoc]

Kawhi has done a terrific job on the likes of LeBron, Rudy Gay, Carmelo Anthony, Paul George, Klay Thompson, etc. but Kevin Durant is a whole different kind of offensive animal. Kawhi's biggest strength is easily his size, which Durant wins against by a landslide. If we want any chance of Durant being contained - Kawhi needs to physical. You're not going to contest his shots often.

Kawhi isn't larger than Melo, though, and he definitely isn't larger than LeBron.

If Chris Paul can limit Durant by playing him close and physical, I really like Kawhi's chances, especially early on in the series. I bet Kawhi is *significantly* stronger than Durant.

[rogues]

Kiwi is going to be a pushover for Kevin..I can sense it already..an efficient 40 points on Kiwi..

[#2!]

I don't think Kawhi's offense will wear down Durant to the point where it will effect his own offensive production. If any positive comes out of an appearance by Sugar Kane (yes I like the name, yes I know the original is Sugar K), it is that it might frustrate KD a little - and obviously help the Spurs' point total.

And on the subject of frustration, Kawhi will need to not show it when fouls are called on him; getting visibly upset, even in the slightest, will only fuel the Thunder. Popovich needs to go back to his roots in this series: back 10 years ago Pop knew the best way to keep Tim from picking up techs was to tell him "you don't say a word, let me handle the refs," and subsequently exploding on the sideline. He seems to have cooled on this idea recently, perhaps in a "lead by example" strategy to keep the players focus away from officiating.

[Aztecfan03]

Kiwi is going to be a pushover for Kevin..I can sense it already..an efficient 40 points on Kiwi..

free throws are pretty efficient.

[rascal]

Kawhi has done a terrific job on the likes of LeBron, Rudy Gay, Carmelo Anthony, Paul George, Klay Thompson, etc. but Kevin Durant is a whole different kind of offensive animal. Kawhi's biggest strength is easily his size, which Durant wins against by a landslide. If we want any chance of Durant being contained - Kawhi needs to physical. You're not going to contest his shots often.

Being physical will find him on the bench in foul trouble. Durant will be protected against any physicality.

[Prime Time]

Kawhi isn't larger than Melo, though, and he definitely isn't larger than LeBron.

If Chris Paul can limit Durant by playing him close and physical, I really like Kawhi's chances, especially early on in the series. I bet Kawhi is *significantly* stronger than Durant.
But Kawhi's arms are long enough to at least contest LeBron/Melo's shots, or bother their vision of the basket. Durant on the other hand is a legit 4-5 inches taller than Kawhi, which makes Kawhi's usual style of defense a bit faded.

However, smaller players like Allen and Paul were able to trouble him by playing like a pest (as you mentioned). This is more or less what I want to see from Kawhi in this series, instead of trying to out-smart the offensive player he just needs to make their life a living hell.

[rascal]

Kawhi isn't larger than Melo, though, and he definitely isn't larger than LeBron.

If Chris Paul can limit Durant by playing him close and physical, I really like Kawhi's chances, especially early on in the series. I bet Kawhi is *significantly* stronger than Durant.

He may be stronger but he is not quicker.

[Prime Time]

Being physical will find him on the bench in foul trouble. Durant will be protected against any physicality.
Actually made a thread about this last month. We can only hope..

[szkorhetz]

free throws are pretty efficient.
http://img.pandawhale.com/43589-BURN-kelso-ohSg.jpeg

[InRareForm]

hopefully more respect this time with them not calling quick fouls

[MI21]

Unfortunately, Durant has done whatever he likes so far, not all against Kawhi but in general.

[Cry Havoc]

Unfortunately, Durant has done whatever he likes so far, not all against Kawhi but in general.

Well, Durant also had 6 turnovers and didn't completely dominate.

The Thunder are thin enough even with Abaka that 28 points from Durant are not going to win them this series. They need 35-40 from him routinely to stand a chance.

Definitely need to do a better job on him though, but he was hitting contested looks tonight.

[MI21]

Well, Durant also had 6 turnovers and didn't completely dominate.

The Thunder are thin enough even with Abaka that 28 points from Durant are not going to win them this series. They need 35-40 from him routinely to stand a chance.

Definitely need to do a better job on him though, but he was hitting contested looks tonight.

Yeah, you really have to attack his dribble and Kawhi did a good job with that. 2 of his TO's were a carry call and an offensive foul but the rest from memory was due to Spurs players digging at the ball on penetration.

I thought Green and Ginobili did good jobs on Durant, Ginobili particularly seems to piss him off with his peskiness, reaching, flopping and all-around old man play :lol

[sexinthatsx]

Unfortunately, Durant has done whatever he likes so far, not all against Kawhi but in general.

Durant has gotten a lot of points off stupid jump shot fouls that refs were calling to keep OKC in the game tbh

[MI21]

Durant has gotten a lot of points off stupid jump shot fouls that refs were calling to keep OKC in the game tbh

The one on Manu was bullshit, the one on Timmy getting into his landing space and putting an arm on his body was a correct call.

[james evans]

the best way to beat the thunder is to attack durant on defense. when this happens, u take his legs from him on offense. we didn't do this in 2012. durant would chill and hit a few shots in quarters 1-3 and when quarter 4 arrived, he was fresh and killing. miami and spoelstra(yeah, it took spoelstra to figure this out in the nba) noticed this and attacked durant in games 2-5. they took him off lebron and switched him to battier, battier was killing him. then they put him on chalmers, chalmers had a big game. durant's defense is garbage and if u attack him, u can beat the thunder. he is probably one of the weakest links on the thunder next to fisher defensively.

[will_spurs]

Well, Durant also had 6 turnovers and didn't completely dominate.

28 points and 6 turnovers. OKC isn't going to win with that kind of production from Durant.

Baynes had a great (if short) stretch against Durant. A few more hard screens on Durant, or just standing in his path as he's rushing head down towards the basket, won't hurt the Spurs but will definitely tire him. Running at full speed into Baynes can't be pleasant.