The degree to which Tony Parker is dominating for the San
Antonio Spurs against the Oklahoma City Thunder is simply stunning. He has 17
points on 8-11 shooting to go along with five assists, and incredibly, that
line isn't completely indicative of how good he's been. San Antonio's passing
game and movement has been the story so far, and it's all been facilitated by
Parker.
Oklahoma City is trailing by double digits, and they're
lucky to be within 11 points. San Antonio leads 55-44 at halftime, but they've been
in control of the entire game to a more impressive degree than the score makes
it sound. Kevin Durant and James Harden are both scoring in an efficient
manner, and they're keeping things from getting out of hand.
Durant and Harden have both been extremely effective, with
14 points each. Westbrook has been a bit less effective offensively with eight
points on 3-8 shooting, but that line might be acceptable if his play was
passable on the other end. Instead, it's been anything but. Taking nothing away
from Parker, who has been brilliant, but Westbrook hasn't done anything on the
defensive end to hinder him. His defense, especially on screens, has been
abysmal.
Scott Brooks also didn't do his team any favors in the
second quarter. Derek Fisher has inexplicably played eight minutes in this
game, and the Thunder looked bad for the four minutes that Daequan Cook was on
the floor. To the surprise of no one, the Thunder's defense suffered when all
of Fisher, Cook and Harden were on the floor. Scott Brooks, ladies and
gentlemen.
The highlight of the half came at the very end, when Tim
Duncan threw down a nasty jam in the face of Serge Ibaka. Duncan hasn't been
great offensively -- he's shooting just 2-7 from the floor -- but one of his
two buckets was spectacular enough to leave the impression that he had a great
half on the offensive end of the floor.
If Oklahoma City is going to get back into this game, they
need to do basically everything better. Westbrook needs to do more on both
ends, they need to do something to keep Parker from dominating, they need to
pass the ball better, and Brooks needs to put down the crazy pills. It'll take
some serious work early in the third quarter to keep this game from getting out
of hand. The good news for OKC is that Harden and Durant are hot enough to keep
their team in the game.
For more on the Spurs,
be sure to visit Pounding the Rock; for the Thunder, Welcome to Loud City. And,
if you're looking for news, analysis and everything else revolving around the
NBA Playoffs, be sure to visit SB Nation's NBA page.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar