Kevin Durant is clutch/How Spurs will guard him

[ALVAREZ6]

Yesterday, Westbrook took 16 shots outside of the paint.

He made 9 of them.



I am not sure we want to just give Westbrooke the mid-range shot, because he appears to be making them pretty well.

I think we have to focus on limiting Westbrook and Harden. I think you let Durant score 40 and try to limit everyone else as much as possible with good team D.

It is going to be Parker and Green on Westbrook. Leonard and Sjax on Durant. It will be interesting to see if they try to hide Neal by having him guard the sg on the floor. If harden and Westbrook are both on the floor, I don't think you can afford neal on the floor.

Westbrook has much improved. I must say I give him respect, and I've been a Westbrook basher for his immaturity and decision making. But he is figured it out and he is a great ing player. Very hard to stop him because he's going to get his shots. He is going to get to the rim and the picks are going to get him jumpers. In Game 1, he was knocking every jumper down it seemed. When he plays like that, the Thunder are very tough to beat and I must say I'm concerned.

Durant is hard to stop, but I feel ok knowing we have Kawhi. He's long and can contest his shots, somewhat. I'm much more worried about Westbrook exploding. This is when I become happy the Spurs snagged homecourt advantage. Well worth it this time around.

[therealtruth]

We have the luxury of putting DG or KL on Westbrook and Durant.

[GSH]

I'm way more concerned about Westbrook. Parker isn't big enough and those we have that are, are not quick enough. It's going to come down to hoping they aren't hot.

Yep. As good as Durant is, Westbrook is the engine if that team. Sonofa is fast, AND he can knock them down from mid-range. He opens the floor up for everyone else.

[John_Carroll]

Looks like a Spurs-Thunder matchup for the WC Finals. Durant has been clutch throughout the playoffs. How do you guys see us guarding him? Leonard will most of the time, but do you think we'll do what LA did tonight and basically just help over anytime Westbrook or Durant have the ball? Their lack of a post game allows this (After we finish up the clips, of course)

Scott Brooks!? Is that you?

Stick around, there's a lot of good stuff here.

[TD 21]

With the exception of Gay, I can't think of a star caliber or better player that Leonard has defended better than Durant this season. Between him and Jackson, they've got length to throw at him, in addition to mental toughness, which is always especially important when guarding elite scorers.

Leonard and Green are going to be huge defensively in this match-up. Green will have to guard Harden and even be the secondary Westbrook defender and both figure to regularly close games, as the Thunder almost always close with Durant at the four and definitely will against the Spurs.

[lmbebo]

OKC is a tough match up.

They got plenty of bigs who can guard timmy (or just foul him).
Durant/Westbrook/Harden are a handful.

They're weakness is that they are primarily a jump shooting team and do not have much of a low post game. So in the half court, there offensive execution is basically 1 on 1s and throwing up jumpers.

[EVAY]

We are going to have a problem with OKC, no doubt.

We can beat them in seven games, but it is not a given. It will be so much harder than anything we have faced so far.

People here are right that Westbrook can do more damage to Parker than anyone we have faced so far.

But I believe that we can win...but it may take 7 games.

[PublicOption]

He will score. Shutting down Westbrook to some degree will be a major focus.

for some reason westbrook sucks when he has to play TP.

[Bartleby]

The trick with Westbrook is to try to lure him into taking jump shots from about 17 feet and beyond. With the exception of Game 1 (which saw him taking fewer shots than usual) his accuracy from there drops off considerably.

But we may be getting ahead of ourselves here. After all, Gutierrez picked the Lakers to win it in 6.