Thought this was a overseen part of the game. Kawhi seems to really make it difficult for Durant when i've seen him defend him. He has the size and those long arms to defend him really well and is very aggressive with him. He really looks up to the challenge. I really think he matches well up against Duran defensively better then anyone else in the league. Who else have you seen that can guard Durant like that?
He is better at stopping Gay, IIRC. He does make life very tough for Durant, hopefully he can do so on Lebron for consecutive halves next time.
EDIT: Misread your post. Can't argue against Leonard being the best of the best when it comes to defending Durant cuz I don't follow OKC, but I would wager that Deng is currently the best Durantula pest atm.
His defense on Durant was awesome, he played with the perfect mix of being physical & smart at the same time. Like Bowen & Artest in one. He's a pest.
He played really solid defense on Durant throughout the game.
Yup KL was holding his own.
Spurs may want to hold off on retiring Bowen's jersey. Kawhi making a run for that spot.
How old is he BTW? Wonder if he is still growing also... I can't get enough of him he plays with a lot of energy and passion on defense can't help but like a guy who's willing to do the dirty work.
I love Kawhi, he has become one of my favorite Spurs, but IIRC, the Spurs have done a pretty good job at defending Durant the past few years..
I could easily be wrong, though, somebody look it up..
21 in June. He could be a Spur for a very, very long time.
holy hes only 21 that boys ceiling is highhhhhhhhhh
damn only 20 i missunderstood that. EVEN BETTER!!!
I hope he chooses to stay with the Spurs, I am sure a lot of teams are going to be throwing money at him.
Durant hit 9 of 19 shots last night in total. Does anyone know what he shot while Leonard was guarding him?
Yeah, I feel like that is right also. The Spurs stopped his 20 point streak (was it 25 point?) as was going for some sort of record IIRC. From memory he has only had 1 or 2 above average games (by his standards) against the Spurs, despite our ty perimeter defenders.
Just off the top of my head I know Durant made at least 3 of his shots when Kawhi wasn't on him. So at worst (or is it best?) he was 6-16 against Kawhi.
Durant shot a decent percentage, but the point is Durant didn't get his usual number of shots.
Leonard got right up on his body and stayed there most of the time. He hounded him all over the court, muscled and pounded him, and generally harassed him. He overplayed the lanes to prevent passes to Durant by his teammates.
In effect, he was denying Durant the ball or any space when he did touch it. And I seem to recall he didn't get but a couple of fouls while he was doing it which is unusual respect by the refs for a rookie up against a superstar.
Meanwhile he was picking up 15 pts of his own to offset Durant somewhat and rebounding inside like a fiend. Couple of times he kept the ball alive and another Spur picked it off.
And speaking of rookie vs. superstar, Leonard never backed down from the challenge.
Beautiful all around game, Rook!
Yeah, I've thought a couple times that shooting % isn't a good indicator of how good Kawhi is on defense, because a lot of the times it seems the man he's guarding will have the ball and just take a look at him low in his stance with his 10 ft long arms stretching out and they're just like "let's move this ball".
Not to diss, but Durant averages 19.4 shots per game this season and took 19 last night. He shoots about 50% from the field this year and was at 42% last night. He averages 3.66 turnovers a game and had 5 last night. So those numbers while slightly worse than normal would probably fall in the first standard deviation of a bell curve. Now if he was 6 of 16 with KL on him that's a 37.5% shooting percentage and is fantastic from a statsitcal standpoint.
I take your point. But notwithstanding the Bell curve deviation :-) I submit that Durant NEEDED to take more shots to win this game or make shots he normally would make. Leonard played him pretty well to prevent him taking over the game.Not to diss, but Durant averages 19.4 shots per game this season and took 19 last night. He shoots about 50% from the field this year and was at 42% last night. He averages 3.66 turnovers a game and had 5 last night. So those numbers while slightly worse than normal would probably fall in the first standard deviation of a bell curve. Now if he was 6 of 16 with KL on him that's a 37.5% shooting percentage and is fantastic from a statsitcal standpoint.
He normally takes 5 3pt shots per game and hits 35%. Last night he took 8 and made 2--25% and I attribute that to Leonard staying in his face and giving him no room while only picking up two fouls.
You don't stop a great superstar shooter like Durant. But you try to contain him, disrupt his rhythm and make him take tough shots. He was not shooting much or well in the first half.
Durant picked up his shooting in the second half when the Thunder made their run--but it was too little, too late. Sam Mitc , the former coach and now an analyst on NBATV attributed some of the Thunder problem to their youth, putting up desperation shots in the closing minutes when there was plenty of time left to take good shots.
I think KL is making an argument for starting with his defense. It's much easier to contain good scorers when you make it tough for them early. It messes with their head and makes them put more effort into scoring which can backfire if they start overthinking how to attack.
The converse is true as well. You make it easy for good scorers to get going and it can be difficult to contain them after that.
Durant shooting 19 shots..Westbrook shooting 29 shots....That's how you beat the Thunder...
The announcers were calling him a "great defender". You haven't heard that much with any Spurs role players since... well you know.
^^^ Keith bogans
Keith used to be an ok defender, but no, that's not who I had in mind.
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