Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant went off in the fourth quarter of Game 4. He single-handedly outscored the San Antonio Spurs in the final 12 minutes of the game. It was a performance that reminded the world just how good Durant can be. So how come the TNT crew wouldn’t shut up about “trust among Thunder players”?
It’s a tired narrative in the mainstream media. “Durant and Russell Westbrook don’t trust their teammates. They want to play hero ball. They are selfish players.” It’s also an incorrect narrative. Westbrook dished out more assists than the entire Spurs team and Durant deferred to Dion Waiters for a crucial three. Sure, KD took a lot of shots down the stretch. He also made all those shots. Superstar players are superstar players for a reason. They take the big shots when the game hangs in the balance. There are rare instances when the star passes to a role player for a critical shot. So rare that we remember every single one of them because we can count them on one hand.
In past years, Oklahoma City was criticized for playing too much ISO ball in crunch time. It still happens, but funny thing, it didn’t happen quite as much in Game 4. The biggest buckets KD got in the fourth? A baseline floater that came after they ran Kawhi Leonard through two screens and a quick pick by Enes Kanter right when Durant caught the ball. Two plays later, Durant hit a wide-open corner three after he shook free from Leonard using a Steven Adams and LaMarcus Aldridge screen. PLAYS! THE THUNDER RAN PLAYS! THE THUNDER GOT HIGH QUALITY SHOTS FOR THEIR BEST PLAYER OFF OF PLAYS!
So why is the narrative that OKC is still too reliant on their superstars and ISO ball when it was actually the Spurs who played one-on-one for most of the fourth quarter?
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Reputation is tough to shake. As a distributor, Westbrook was never better than this season, but he still gets labeled as a guy who takes too many shots and doesn’t get his teammates involved enough. It still happens. He did a terrible job of playing team basketball in Game 3 and was a huge reason why they lost. But for most of the season, he’s been great at making sure everyone “gets theirs” while he still “gets his.” The Spurs have a reputation as being a “beautiful ball moving machine” even though they rely so much on Leonard and Aldridge to score off of ISO and post-up plays. Let’s not let facts stand in the way of a narrative we’ve already written.
The funny thing about the Inside The NBA crew, Charles Barkley in particular, is that moments after criticizing Durant and Westbrook for not getting their teammates involved, they criticized the Atlanta Hawks for not having a superstar who can takeover games in the fourth quarter. The Hawks trust each other, but I’m sure they would love to have an elite scorer who can get hot. Not everyone is LeBron James, a clutch player who makes the right play, whether he takes the shot or passes to a teammate, nine out of ten times. And even LeBron gets criticized for passing in crunch time because people are fickle and no player is perfect.
You know who doesn’t trust his teammates? Steph Curry. Why else would he pull up from 40-feet with the game on the line? The ball was obviously supposed to go to Harrison Barnes, but Curry was like, “Nah, this halfcourt shot seems like a better idea.” Kidding aside, how often does Golden State go away from Curry or Klay Thompson in crunch time? They aren’t running plays for Andrew Bogut in the final minute.
Durant and Westbrook trust their teammates. They’re just better players. They’re the star players and you want the ball in the hands of your star players when the clock is winding down. Oklahoma City is the easiest team in the league to criticize. They’re a team with two superstars who haven’t won a NBA title, so obviously they’re doing something wrong and no matter what they do, it’s still the incorrect way of doing it. How about we flip the script and say that their teammates have the utmost trust in them to make the right play? Maybe that’s too positive of a spin.
Next: Film Room: 3 good and bad things from Game 4
There are plenty of things to criticize about the Thunder as a team and Durant and Westbrook as individuals. We don’t need to drudge up past narratives because we have them memorized and aren’t actually paying attention to the game.