Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

As LeBron James capped off quite the spectacular year with a gold medal win over Spain in the Olympics, it sparked the most popular debate in the sport of basketball: Who is the greatest player ever?

Jim Boeheim got the ball rolling saying he used to think Michael Jordan was the greatest player ever but after spending six weeks with LeBron, was no longer sure about that.

Then everybody started voicing their opinions.

That’s enough about that though. What I’m curious about is where Kevin Durant fits in with all of this. When his career is over, where will we remember him on the hierarchy of greatest players ever?

Durant just finished his fifth season in the NBA so yes, it’s early on. But he’s already challenging LeBron in some respects and is widely considered the second best player in the NBA right now at just 23 years old. He won his third straight scoring title last season, has finished second in the MVP voting twice and has already led his team to the NBA Finals.

More than any other player in the NBA, Durant was put on earth to play basketball and to score in particular. But he’s not from the same mold as Jordan, LeBron or Kobe so we rarely talk about Durant as someone who could go down as the greatest ever. He’s been more one-dimensional so far in his career too, viewed as just a scorer who isn’t a great passer or defender yet.

Those things are all true and that’s why no one talks about him yet as a potential G.O.A.T. but he still has a very good chance to go down as a top ten or maybe even top five player ever.

Durant’s shot at being remembered that good will have a lot to do with team success. Right now he is part of the best young team in the NBA that is already good enough to compete for an NBA title. It’s easy to look at the Thunder as a team that will be able to compete for a championship for the next decade. They’ve been compared to and are modeled after the San Antonio Spurs, who won four titles in the Duncan era from 1998 until now. If Durant can do the same kind of thing in OKC, he will be remembered in a similar light as Duncan.

Durant also has a chance to go down as a historically great statistical player. He is obviously on pace to score about as many points as anyone ever. Durant’s game is still evolving though so it’s tough to know if he will be able to sustain being such a high-scorer later in his career.

To do this he will have to start going into the post more. He started doing this some last season and even implemented Dirk’s patented stepback jumper. If Durant can learn more from Dirk and develop the kind of post-up game Dirk has had these past few seasons, that would seem the most likely way to keep scoring at the clip he has been.

The top five scorers in NBA history right now are Kareem, Mailman, Jordan, Wilt and Kobe in that order. LeBron has a good shot to get into the top five by the end of his career. If Durant plays long enough, he has a really good chance to pass Malone and get within striking distance of Kareem or wherever Kobe ends up.

The other factor in determining Durant’s greatness is how good of a shooter he is. He has a legitimate chance to go down being remembered as the best shooter to ever play in the NBA. It’s something that isn’t debated about as much really because it’s hard to say what constitutes being the best shooter ever is.

We have Reggie Miller and Ray Allen who are known as the best 3-point shooters ever. Then there’s Bird, Dirk, Maravich and Nash who are often in the conversation. You can even make a case for a player like Steve Kerr as one of the best shooters ever.

Durant could define the debate with what he has a chance to do in his career. To be as skilled as he is at 7-foot tall with the kind of range he has is unprecedented. It would be hard for him to touch Reggie or Ray in terms of career threes made but he has a relatively easy chance to become third on the all-time list (now held by Jason Kidd).

Durant is a career 88 percent free throw shooter as well and shot just under 50 percent from the field last season. If he can string together some 50-40-90 shooting seasons while still scoring as much as he does, it will become tough to argue that he isn’t the greatest shooter ever.

So let’s say Durant wins like three NBA titles, retires as the league’s third all-time leading scorer, top five in points per game for his career and makes the third most threes all-time, that would put him right up there with some of the greats of all-time.

Again, it’s early and that’s a lot of pressure and expectations to meet but I kind of see that as his relatively conceivable ceiling. He’d end up right around Duncan-Shaq-Moses-West in the greatest of all-time rankings. I’d be good with that.

Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant cemented himself as the second-best player in the league this past season right behind LeBron James. He finished second in the MVP voting behind LeBron then finished second as a team when the Oklahoma City Thunder lost in the NBA Finals to the Miami Heat.

Durant did beat LeBron in one sense making the cover of NBA 2K13 along with Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin. NBA 2K13 wanted to focus on the future of the league as opposed to its past like it has done with the last two installments. That is perhaps why Durant got the nod for the cover over someone like LeBron.

Durant’s overall rating was revealed during the 2K Sports NBA 2K13 live stream interview with Ronnie Singh. Durant received a 95 overall, three points higher than the 92 he got at the start of last season.

This is probably a fair number for Durant. While he is the second-best player in the NBA, you can make the case for him having this low of a number. His defensive ratings will still not be too high and his passing rating will also be a little low.

LeBron will likely receive the 98 overall he has been getting or possibly even a 99 overall rating. After the way he played this past season and especially in the playoffs, a 99 is probably deserving.

The real question is if there will be anyone rated above Durant besides LeBron. In recent years, there has been a few players rated above 95 along with LeBron. Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant have been among the players being rated that high.

Wade and Kobe should dip under that plateau for NBA 2K13 though and definitely should not be rated as highly as Durant. Chris Paul is maybe the only player that should be rated higher than Durant is.

One thing is for sure though and that is that Durant will be unstoppable to play with in the game. He already pretty much has been in past years but he’s really reaching a point now where he is becoming the ultimate video game basketball player.

His height and length is always an asset and his ability to shoot from long range makes him pretty unfair. Expect ratings in the mid-to-high 90s for his midrange jumper.

The overall rating is not always the most important thing. Last year, Dirk Nowitzki received an 85 overall rating but was still unstoppable because he had a 99 midrange rating.

Russell Westbrook and James Harden should get a lot of love from 2K Sports this year as well. Westbrook will be as quick as any player in the game and will also have a very high midrange rating which will make him unstoppable. Harden’s beard length will certainly be more accurate in NBA 2K13 and his ability to finish at the rim with the euro-step will hopefully be unstoppable as well.

Serge Ibaka should be graced with a 99 shot blocking rating after averaging more blocks per game than anyone since the 2001-02 season. Expect Perry Jones to get a nice rookie rating as well, possibly 71 or around that.

Dirk recently shared with Marc Stein of ESPN how he feels about Durant:

“KD,” Nowitzki says, “is way ahead of my curve.”

“He’s arguably the best player in the league right now,” Nowitzki told ESPN.com over the weekend. “I see a guy that really has no holes.

“He’s a 6-10 guy with a 7-4 wingspan who can shoot it from the parking lot. He’s posting up now. In transition he’s so long that, when he gets a pass from the 3-point line, it’s a layup or dunk with one step. He’s got the one- or two-dribble pull-up, which you need to be a great scorer, because you can’t just shoot 3s or go to the basket if you want to be a great scorer, ’cause sometimes you can’t get all the way to the bucket. He can go both ways, one or two dribbles and up.

“And he’s clutch, too. He’s hit big shot after big shot all season long. He made three game winners on us this year. I thought he’s always been clutch, but now it’s almost like you know he’s going to make them. He’s phenomenal.”

Dirk isn’t done, either.

“He’s way more of a 3-man than I ever was,” Nowitzki continued. “He handles the ball way better on the break than I ever did. He’s got deeper range. And he’s doing all this at 23. He’s won the scoring title three times in a row, so that he means he won the first one at 21. I barely got through my rookie year. When I was 21, Gary Trent was still killing me in practice.”

It’s no surprise Dirk loves Durant’s game so much. The two are very similar players with similar skill sets but Dirk is right that Durant has more potential than him.

Durant can learn a lot from Dirk and how his game evolved over the years. Dirk started off a more perimeter based offensive player, shooting a lot of threes. Last season when the Mavericks won the NBA title, Dirk did most of his work in the low-to-high posts.

Durant has more ball handling skills than Dirk but still could spend some more time in the post. He has demonstrated this season a determination to emulate Dirk with his patented one-footed stepback jumper but Durant still has a long way to go with that shot and his post game in general.

In 2006, we saw Dirk struggle mightily in the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. The defense was very physical on him as Dirk was often playing with his back to the basket but from about 18 feet out.

Durant plays that way a lot this season and for the pessimists, the comparison with ’06 Dirk might seem kind of likely.

Win or lose in these Finals, Durant should go to school watching Dirk’s career arc. Dirk became the perfect championship leader last season with Dallas and if Durant strives for that, he can’t go wrong.

Dirk still thinks San Antonio is going to beat the Thunder and make it to the NBA Finals.

“I think San Antonio’s going to do it, just because they’ve got one more home game,” Dirk said on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM’s Galloway & Company. “They really came on strong late in the season and they snatched home-court advantage away from OKC. So, I got to think just by that there is a little slight advantage. But honestly, both teams are good enough to win on the opponent’s floor, so I would give a slight advantage to San Antonio, but, man, OKC is looking really good.”

Dirk and the Spurs have a long history in the playoffs so it’s not surprising that Dirk would be backing them. Dirk seems to be enjoying his chance to simply be a fan and watch the rest of these playoffs.

“It’s going to be spectacular. Hopefully, it’s going to be a long series and we can all watch some great basketball,” Nowitzki said. “The whole thing is full of great matchups. Just off the bench with Ginobili and [James] Harden going at it, the two point guards, obviously [Russell] Westbrook was phenomenal against us all series, but Parker is having a phenomenal year, probably in the prime of his career and Duncan is still looking really good this year. And now they got another week off to rest everybody.

“So, it’s going to be an incredible series to watch.”

Dirk is right about that. Many are calling the Thunder-Spurs Western Conference Finals the real NBA Finals this season since both teams have been playing far better than anyone else in the playoffs.

Game 1 will be Sunday at 8:30 p.m. EST on TNT.

The Thunder trailed 81-68 entering the fourth quarter and it looked like the series would be going back to Oklahoma City.

Then Harden took over the game. The Thunder offense went exclusively through him as it usually does when he’s out there with the bench unit and it also continues to when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook checked back in.

An interesting thing to note here too is that Scott Brooks took Durant out with a few minutes left in the third quarter and when he does that it usually means Durant will start the fourth quarter and play the rest of the game.

If Durant starts the fourth does Harden completely take over? Maybe not.

In the fourth quarter the Thunder would have 22 offensive possessions. Twenty of them came in the half court and 15 straight of them were Harden dribbling down, getting one pick and creating everything.

Let’s go through the entire fourth quarter for the Thunder.

The first three possessions, the Thunder run their Corner 2 set that featured Harden and Nick Collison in dribble handoff action.

Harden comes off a Collison screen and drives left to the paint and then finds Daequan Cook throwing a pass across his body for the three. When Harden makes passes, shooters make shots because the basketball Gods love his passes.

11:38 – Dallas up 81-71

Harden drives left again off of a Collison screen and the ball is poked away out of bounds by Delonte West from behind. Cook then finds Serge Ibaka wide open for a dunk on a slip from the baseline out of bounds play.

10:56 – Dallas up 81-73

Before the ball can go to Collison on the next possession, Derek Fisher reads an opening to drive on the pick-and-roll and then misses the pull-up jumper.

10:11 – Dallas up 83-73

Durant checks back in. Now the Thunder are just having Harden bring the ball up usually to the right wing and bring a screen to him above the 3-point line. Harden drives hard left and gets fouled from behind and gets the continuation layup to fall and makes the free throw.

9:29 – Dallas up 86-76

Harden this time when he gets into the paint goes to his right and misses the tough layup. Ibaka follows up the offensive rebounds and misses the putback.

9:00 – Dallas up 86-76

Harden gets the pick-and-roll but nothing is there right away. He backs off then goes straight into West on the isolation drive and finishes with a tough eurostep from 10-feet away. Dallas fans wanted the travel.

Here are his last two buckets.

8:33 – Dallas up 86-78

Westbrook checks back in. Harden gets his screen again and goes hard to his left finishing with the layup.

8:07 – Dallas up 86-80

Harden gets the screen but there isn’t a lot of space to drive and kicks back to Durant who comes up some to the right wing and Durant drills the three. Again, shooters knock down shots when Harden is the passer.

7:26 – Dallas up 86-83

Harden gets the pick and splits the defenders on his way to the huge monster dunk.

6:39 – Dallas up 86-85

Dallas now decides to go to their matchup zone so that Harden can’t as easily attack the paint. It works in a way. Harden has to kick out to Westbrook on the left wing after the pick. Westbrook drives and kicks back out to Harden who swings it to Durant on the right wing who nails the three.

6:05 – Tie game 88-88

Harden gets the pick again and quickly kicks out to Durant on the right wing. Dirk comes up to close out on Durant and Durant drives hard baseline past him and finishes with the flush.

5:33 – Dallas up 91-90

Westbrook strips Dirk on defense then finds a trailing Ibaka for the fast break dunk to give the Thunder their first lead of the quarter.

5:16 – Oklahoma City up 92-91

Dallas still in the matchup zone. Harden waives off the Ibaka screen and goes one-on-one on Jason Kidd. He drives to his right and misses the layup over Ian Mahinmi.

4:37 – Oklahoma City up 92-91

Harden again isolates with Kidd on him and drives left this time but loses his handle on the way to the rim. He regains it then kicks back out to Derek Fisher who drives in for the layup.

4:05 – Oklahoma City up 94-91

Dallas is back in man. Harden gets the screen and drives left. Jason Terry helps on the drive and Harden kicks out to Westbrook on the left wing who misses the 3-pointer.

3:34 – Oklahoma City up 94-91

Harden in the pick-and-roll and Mahinmi doesn’t hedge creating a situation where Harden has momentum driving right at Mahinmi. Harden gets to his right and is fouled shooting the layup and makes both.

3:00 – Oklahoma City up 96-91

Thunder try and go pick-and-roll again with Harden. Nothing is there and Harden kicks to Durant. The ball goes back to Harden at the end of the shot clock and he goes one-on-one with Shawn Marion on him and scores going to his left with the layup.

2:30 – Oklahoma City up 98-93

Dallas is looking to go back into their matchup zone here but the Thunder are overloaded on the left side of the floor. Dallas gets confused and Harden swings to Durant on the right wing before the pick-and-roll comes all the way. Dallas is scrambling and Durant finds Collison diving to the rim and he’s fouled shooting a layup and makes both free throws.

2:01 – Oklahoma City up 100-95

Dallas in the zone and Marion ends up on Harden who decides to just isolate on him. Marion is playing off him and Harden knows he can get the stepback three off. He misses it.

1:27 – Oklahoma City up 100-95

The Thunder go to Durant isolating at the top of the key. He has space and elects to go for the pull-up straightaway 3-pointer. He misses it.

0:48 – Oklahoma City up 100-95

The Thunder go back to Harden in the pick-and-roll while Dallas is back in man. Harden gets Kidd to switch on to him and then easily drives by him going to his right and the paint is wide open for him to finish with the layup.

So Harden scores 15 in the quarter and dishes out three assists (all for 3-pointers). The Thunder ran the same basic play on 15 straight half court possessions and it worked incredibly well.

I’ve said before that the Thunder are at their best doing exactly this. With Harden as the playmaker and Durant and Westbrook off the ball they are maximizing the three’s potential. We saw Harden of course do that in Game 4 and Durant too showed us how good he can be off the ball.

Westbrook’s greatest impact came on defense but he’s shown before how effective he can be off the ball when Harden has it.

It was so important for Oklahoma City to get Harden playing well in their first round series and that’s exactly what happened. The sweep of the defending champs proved that the Thunder are serious contenders and they will go as far as Harden takes them.

Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE

James Harden took his game to another level Saturday night in Game 4 of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first round matchup with the defending champion Dallas Mavericks.

The Thunder completed the sweep of the Mavericks winning 103-97 and outscoring Dallas 35-16 in the final quarter.

Harden scored 15 of his playoff career-high 29 points in the fourth quarter and also had five assists, five rebounds and three steals in the game. Everything went through Harden in the fourth as he completely took over.

Oklahoma City trailed 81-68 entering the fourth quarter and Harden got hot quick. Down 86-73 with 9:29 left in the game Harden would score seven straight points and then find Kevin Durant open for a 3-pointer as the Thunder went on a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to three with 7:26 to play.

The Thunder continued their comeback in the next two minutes to take the lead behind a 3-pointer and three dunks.

Dirk Nowitzki made two free throws to cut the Thunder lead to 100-97 with 33 seconds left in the game only to see Harden respond again.

The offense continued to go through Harden until the very end. Harden isolated and scored on a layup with a second left on the shot clock and 10 seconds left in the game to put the finishing touches on the Thunder win.

The other Thunder players stepped up their games inspired by the elevated play of Harden.

Durant started making threes when he came back in the game in the fourth and finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.

Russell Westbrook struggled shooting on the night going 3-for-12 with 12 points but came up with a big steal from behind on Dirk that led to the fast break dunk for Serge Ibaka that gave the Thunder their first lead of the fourth with 5:16 left in the game.

Ibaka had the task of guarding Dirk for most of the night after Kendrick Perkins went down with a strained right hip in the first quarter and did not return.

Dirk scored 34 in the game but the Thunder defense rose to the occasion when they needed to, to get stops.

After Ibaka fouled out with just over two minutes left, Durant came up with three huge defensive rebounds and was noticeably more engaged on defense.

The Thunder once again look they are growing up in this series. It was another game that Dallas had in the bag and could have easily won but the Thunder never gave up.

They’ve played this way all season too and their ability to carry that into the playoffs and trust Harden to be the catalyst down the stretch has to make you think this team is a real contender this year.

Dallas is the first defending champ to be swept in the first round since Miami in 2007 lost 4-0 to Chicago.

The Mavericks were not the same this year and were clearly waiting for this summer to make some more moves.

Credit the Thunder for playing hard every game in this series and gutting out three really tough, close wins.

Oklahoma City will now await the winner of the Lakers-Nuggets series in the second round. The Lakers currently are up 2-1 but did lost Game 3 last night in Denver.

Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins suffered a right hip strain in the first quarter of Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks and will not return to the game.

The Thunder lead Dallas 26-24 after one quarter. Perkins had two assists and two rebounds in the quarter and has been the player assigned to cover Dirk Nowitzki the most this series.

Perkins has done a nice job on Dirk but Nick Collison traditionally does the best job on Dirk and certainly will play more minutes with Perkins out.

The Thunder have gone small a lot in this series playing Kevin Durant at the four and inserting Derek Fisher into the lineup. Expect to see that again tonight.

Oklahoma City is looking to sweep Dallas tonight and the Mavericks have come out tonight a lot better than they did in Game 3. The defending champs obviously won’t go down without a fight.

Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder will have a chance tonight to sweep the defending NBA champions in the first round.

The series was tight through two games in Oklahoma City but the Thunder really came together in Game 3, blowing out Dallas on their home floor and taking the commanding 3-0 series lead.

Kevin Durant came alive in Game 3 after two tough shooting nights at home he made 11-of-15 shots in Game 3 and scored 31 points. He started off great scoring 15 first quarter points and making three 3-pointers.

If Durant can have another game like that it might be too much for this Mavericks team to overcome.

Russell Westbrook has continued to play at a very high level in this series as he just seems to not be challenged enough on offense. He is getting to the spots he wants to very easily for his pull-up jumper and hitting it at a high clip in the series (5-for-9 in Game 3).

Durant and Westbrook aren’t two players who are going to take it easy because their team is up 3-0. They haven’t taken a game off all season. So unless the Mavericks can improve drastically and you have to imagine their motivation will be lacking, look forward to this series not returning to Oklahoma City.

Dirk Nowitzki played two very tough games in the first two averaging 28 points in each but didn’t come up as his usual clutch self in the ends. The Game 3 loss felt like a crushing one for him and a changing of the guards in the West.

Last year’s Thunder team probably isn’t up 3-0 in this series. Winning those first two games then coming out the way they did in Game 3 is new to this year. The team is growing up and doing so in the playoffs, the most important time.

There were questions surrounding the Thunder heading into the playoffs and the Mavericks even looked like a team that could upset them or give them a very tough series. It’s clear now that the Thunder hold their destiny in their own hands. They have the talent to go all the way and if they can keep playing at this level they just might.

The game tonight will tip at 7:30 p.m. EST on TNT.

Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Dallas Mavericks 95-79 to take a commanding 3-0 series lead.

Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 31 points in the game and got off to a great start with 15 in the first quarter.

The Thunder led 50-41 at halftime and started the third quarter off great.

Russell Westbrook led the charge knocking down three straight jumpers in the first five minutes of the third. Westbrook after a slow start finished with 20 points in the game.

Westbrook and Thabo Sefolosha made back-to-back 3-pointers with 5:53 left in the third to put Oklahoma City up 66-50. The Thunder led 75-57 after three.

Derek Fisher and Daequan Cook gave the Thunder a solid lift off the bench combining for 19 points and five three pointers.

Fisher made a driving layup with 10:41 left in the game to cap a 15-1 run and give the Thunder an 83-58 lead.

Dirk Nowitzki struggled all night going 6-for-15 from the field for 17 points and also picked up a technical foul in the first quarter.

The game felt like a changing of the guard in the West. The Thunder have improved greatly this year and getting by Dallas while they are not the same team as last year is a big step for them.

Now up 3-0 the series seems a lock but you never know. This Dallas team however never seemed to totally have it this season and trying to fight back from down 3-0 seems very unlikely.

Game 4 will be Saturday at 7:30 p.m. EST.

Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant leads the way with 21 first half points as the Oklahoma City Thunder lead the Dallas Mavericks 50-41 at halftime of Game 3.

Durant came out hot scoring 15 in the first and making three 3-pointers.

Russell Westbrook has reversed roles with Durant tonight struggling from the field going 3-for-11 with eight points.

The Thunder got out to a great start and an again frustrated Mavericks team picked up two technical fouls on Dirk Nowitzki and then head coach Rick Carlisle arguing calls.

Oklahoma City led 32-26 after one and would lead 48-33 with 3:51 to go in the second quarter.

Dallas has played a matchup zone with some decent success so far in this game. It’s not really a traditional zone as they do a lot of switching and matching up but it gave the Thunder some trouble early in the second as Oklahoma City settled for too many 3-pointers early in the shot clock.

The Thunder settled down and figured it out some and were able to increase their lead.

Dirk and Jason Kidd lead Dallas with 10 points apiece.

Dallas is shooting 36.8 percent from the field and has attempted four more free throws than the Thunder so far. The Thunder didn’t attempt a free throw in the second quarter.

The Thunder will need to get back to the line some more in the second half to make sure they win. This would obviously be a huge win and probably mean that the series is over. The Thunder have come out strong and really shouldn’t waste what’s already been a good shooting night from Durant.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder will go into Dallas tonight with a chance to take a commanding 3-0 series lead. They did well surviving the first two games and coming away with victories.

Kevin Durant struggled mightily shooting in the first two games with a 10-of-27 showing in Game 1 and 5-for-17 mark in Game 2.

One would thing Durant has to improve a lot on those numbers tonight. He has gotten a lot of looks and taken mostly jump shots. His teammates did a good job of playing well to help the Thunder win despite his low shooting nights but now on the road Durant will have to start knocking down those looks.

Russell Westbrook has been great so far leading the Thunder in scoring. He really has his midrange pull-up working which is always the test for how well he is playing. As long as he can keep that going tonight his entire game will continue to click.

Dirk Nowitzki has averaged 28 per game so far in this series but he just doesn’t seem as dominant as last year. It is still a journey to figure out who will guard him in the post. Dirk seems to have Serge Ibaka’s number and Kendrick Perkins has had some success.

Nick Collison seems to do the best job against Dirk but he does give up a lot of height. The best lineup for the Thunder when it comes to defending Dirk might be Collison and Ibaka on the floor together which seems to never happen.

James Harden has played very well in the first two games of the series and is leading the Thunder in assists. But Harden always tails off some on the road so we will see if he can continue to be aggressive with the ball tonight or if his game seems more subdued.

A key for Dallas will be making three-point shots. Dallas has the personnel to convert open threes so it will be on the Thunder’s watch to play hard defense for the entire shot clock and hustle hard to get out and contest ever shot. The Thunder have done well in this department in the last six quarters of this series.

The Thunder obviously don’t have to win tonight being up 2-0 but it is quite the opportunity to go up 3-0 against the defending champs. A loss wouldn’t be devastating but we’ve seen how Dallas can take over control of a series after winning a game and the Thunder need to avoid that at all costs.

Durant went 10-for-27 in Game 1 and then 5-for-17 in Game 2. He has made some big plays most notably the Game 1 game-winner but getting that shooting number up will definitely be a priority for the Thunder moving forward.

Something that Oklahoma City has tried to get better at this season is getting Durant touches closer to the rim and in the post. Durant posted up 10.5 percent of the time this season. Last year he was only posting 6.5 percent of the time and two years ago 5.7 percent.

The 10.5 percent is still kind of low for a player like Durant but a step in the right direction as far as most people are concerned.

In the first two games against Dallas in this series, Durant has posted up 13 times. That doesn’t seem like a ton but it is more than he did during the regular season.

Durant has gone 4-for-8 from the field in those 13 possessions, turned the ball over three times and been fouled twice (once in the act of shooting).

Durant has flat out not appeared very comfortable posting up in these two games. One reason is that Durant has been guarded primarily by Shawn Marion who does a very good job on him.

Durant essentially does two things when he is in the post: he either shoots a jump shot over his right shoulder or tries to go strong to the rim over his left shoulder (or simply toward the middle of the floor usually).

Durant isn’t strong enough yet to develop the kind of post game that Dirk Nowitzki has and that’s surely what Durant is trying to eventually do already using that stepback one-footer (which by the way Durant has far from mastered as it seems to almost never go in).

So what should Durant be doing when he gets the ball in the post against Dallas? We know Oklahoma City is going to continue to try and get him touches down there and it’s a spot where he should be able to score since he is always 4-to-5 inches taller than his defender.

The best thing he ever does is face up. This is usually because he will get pushed out too far and in Durant’s case that’s almost a better thing. When he faces up he can either simply shoot over his defender (probably the best case) or drive strong to his right and draw contact.

When he drive to his right while having his back to the basket he seems to always lose his balance. But when he is already facing he is much more comfortable and can elevate on his way to the rim.

But it’s not always going to be easy for him to face up the way Dallas defends him. They like to get as close as possible to him and really body him up. This means Durant will have to try and go to shots with his back to the basket.

He looks the most comfortable going to the fadeaway over his right shoulder (most righties do). The one problem here and why Durant isn’t more effective with this shot is that he’s not one to put a lot of arc on his jumper like Dirk would. And while fading back that makes the shot very difficult to drop.

I’d like to see Durant try and go glass when he uses his fadeaway. He doesn’t do it often so I’m not going to hold my breath on this one but I think he’d make a higher percentage of these shots.

Either way, when he has his back to the basket he should almost always be going to that fadeaway. It’s an automatic clean look if nothing else.

Depending on how the game is being called I wouldn’t mind him trying to drive but it seems the only good that ever comes from that is a foul being called.

At the end of the day, it’s nice that Durant is posting more but I don’t know how useful it is going to be especially when he has a very solid defender like Marion covering him.

He’s just not ready to dominate from that position and until he learns to, the Thunder might be stuck one notch below the level of champion.

Dirk received an incidental elbow from Serge Ibaka after making a jump shot and then gave Ibaka a bump running back down the court. A few plays later, Dirk was shoved around some by Kendrick Perkins underneath the rim and then lost his cool throwing an elbow at Perkins after the play.

The Thunder have gotten under Dirk’s skin and they got the Mavericks and head coach Rick Carlisle complaining about the officiating.

But have the Thunder been too physical with Dirk? Have they been dirty?

Absolutely not.

Carlisle doesn’t seem to think so but I see nothing wrong with how Oklahoma City has played Dirk. You have to get physical with him and it’s not like they’re getting away with much. Dirk has gone 20-for-21 from the free throw line in two games so far against the Thunder. The officials really tightened things up last night especially in the second half as the teams combined for 71 free throw attempts in Game 2.

“That was a physical, intense, hard-fought playoff basketball game,” Thunder head coach Scott Brooks said after the game. “I’m proud of our guys the way they battled at first there at the start and we finished up playing tough, hard, defensive-minded basketball.”

If you’re Dirk, the defending champion and Finals MVP, you can’t expect to not be played so physically. That’s how he’s been defended his whole career and that’s how people have had success defending him.

It’s not like Kendrick Perkins is a rookie or something either. He’s been around and people know what he does. He uses his elbows a little more than most, sets moving screens and gives you that extra nudge when it’s not entirely necessary. It doesn’t feel good but it’s not dirty. It’s just how he earns a paycheck and it is also extremely important for this Thunder team.

The series is going to go back to Dallas now and expect Dirk to get a few more calls than he did in Games 1 and 2. That will be a tough thing for Oklahoma City to overcome for sure. Remember last year in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, Dirk went 24-for-24 from the free throw line.

Things will change some when the series shifts to Dallas, hopefully it’s not too drastic though.

I take a look at the Game 2′s last night and give my thought on Rajon Rondo’s suspension and Amare Stoudemire’s injury. I break down if the Knicks have a chance to comeback in their series and how the Thunder have done so far against the Mavericks.

You can also download the podcast here.

Serge Ibaka had been playing Dirk for most of the game and Scott Brooks switched Perkins on him late. Perkins forced Dirk into a miss and two turnovers and did it with simply great effort and energy.

In Game 2 we expected to see the same from the Thunder, going with Perkins on Dirk. It wasn’t featured early with Ibaka still getting some run on Dirk and foul trouble for everyone. But we did see the matchup late.

Dirk missed two huge shots in the final minutes, shots we’re not used to seeing him miss. He got great looks and he got them because Dallas adjusted to Perkins covering him.

In Game 1 Perkins covered Dirk in isolation and back-to-the-basket situations. That’s where Dirk was killing Ibaka.

Perkins took that away so Dallas went to using Dirk in the pick-and-roll when Perkins was on him in Game 2.

The first of Dirk’s misses was the most surprising. He became wide open for a three from the left wing after setting a screen for Jason Terry. Russell Westbrook was trailing Terry and Perkins forced to show at least a little. That left Dirk wide open and he missed the seemingly automatic look.

Dallas went to the same set on their next possession and this time Jason Kidd found Dirk open rolling to the basket. Ibaka came over to help and the set accomplished what it set out to at least to an extent and got Perkins away from Dirk.

Dirk posted Ibaka on the left block and went to his patented fadeaway one-footer. He did not get the roll and the Thunder would win the game because of these two misses.

At first look, I thought Dirk should have gone at Ibaka the way he always does when he has success: spinning to that right shoulder and getting contact going to the rim. Instead he went to the fallaway and Ibaka actually played the move well reacting very quickly to the spin and maybe Dirk sensed this and that’s why he went for that shot.

Dirk has been great in these first two games despite Dallas losing both. It will be a challenge for Oklahoma City to continue to play him decently heading on the road for the next two games.

But we’ve seen something we’re not used to with Dirk and that’s him not coming up absolutely huge in the final moments of games. The Thunder have done a good job effecting this and it may lead to them eventually winning this series.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Yet again, the Dallas Mavericks held a lead in the final minute of the game. They led 97-96 before the Thunder hit four free throws.

Jason Terry hit a layup when down three, James Harden followed with two more free throws and the Mavs ended up with a shot to tie it with the shot clock off.

Terry missed two long 3-pointers at the buzzer and Oklahoma City held home court as they won Game 2, 102-99.

The game started out unusually as Kendrick Perkins scored seven of the Thunder’s first nine points. It looked like they were going to blowout the Mavericks during the second quarter when they took a 16-point lead.

Dallas brought the lead down to seven by halftime and took a lead just over four minutes into the third. From then on out it was a dogfight.

The refs called a very tight game; there were 54 total fouls, incredibly unusual for a playoff game. OKC shot 39 free throws to Dallas’ 32.

This series heads to Dallas for Game 3 on Thursday at 8:30 local time.

Kevin Durant- B     26pts/10reb/1ast/2stl

Very similarly to Game 1, Durant struggled to hit jump shots. Shawn Marion is a very solid wing defender, and has help Durant to just 34.1% shooting so far this series. Being the scoring champ, Kevin Durant is not going to shoot poorly forever, so it is a good sign that the team is winning despite his performances.

Russell Westbrook- B+    29pts/2reb/2ast

Westbrook played well on both sides of the ball tonight. He was put on Jason Terry and he shut him down for the most part. On offense, Westbrook was able to get to the rim and get fouled as well as hit the mid-range jumpers.

Kendrick Perkins- A-     13pts/6reb/1blk

I was really surprised by the beginning of the game. Perkins actually scored, and it was with efficiency. He ended up with 13 points on five shots. The Mavericks went small, which forced the Thunder to not play Perkins on Dirk that much. In 27 minutes, Perkins played some solid defense to go along with the weird scoring output.

Serge Ibaka- D     2pts/4reb/1ast/1blk

There wasn’t much to take from Ibaka’s game this time. He didn’t play all too much, and didn’t have an impact when he did. Again Ibaka struggled guarding Nowitzki out on the wing. He only blocked one shot and grabbed four rebounds to go with his two points. Not the best game for the young big man while he gains playoff experience.

James Harden- A     15pts/7reb/5ast/3stl

So far in this series, James Harden has taken 20 free throws, and only 14 field goal attempts. The Mavericks have not figured out how to prevent him from getting to the rim due to their lack of size in the paint. Harden is has been the X-Factor in these game by finding ways to score, even if he’s not hitting his shots.

Rest of the Thunder- B+

Finally the bench got it going. James Harden was the only bench player to score in Game 1, while in Game 2, the non-Harden bench scored 17 points. Derek Fisher led the way with 11 of his own, including a late 3 and a buzzer beater at the end of the first half. Fisher showed flashes from his previous playoff accomplishments, and he looks to continue to contribute positively to another title run. Nick Collison was assigned the task of stopping Dirk Nowitzki for most of the game. He was doing very well until fouling out with nine minutes left in the game.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder dodged bullets down the stretch on their way to a 102-99 Game 2 win over the Dallas Mavericks to take a 2-0 first round series lead.

Dirk Nowitzki missed a wide-open 3-pointer with the Mavericks leading 97-96 with 1:13 left in the game.

The Thunder then got bailed out on their next possession at the end of the shot clock with Jason Terry committing a bad foul on Kevin Durant. Durant made both free throws to put the Thunder ahead 98-97.

Dirk would get another good look on the next possession down on the left block with Serge Ibaka switching on to him. Dirk went to his patented stepback one-footed jumper and did not get the friendly roll, not the roll that Durant got in Game 1.

James Harden would make all four of his free throw attempts in the final 25 seconds to close the door on the Mavericks. Harden finished the game with 15 points, was 2-for-7 from the floor but 10-of-10 at the line.

Durant had another tough shooting night going 5-for-17 but still scored 26 points thanks to 14-for-16 at the line and pulled down 10 rebounds. He also had seven turnovers in the game.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Russell Westbrook carried the load again for the most part with his midrange game clicking again. He scored 29 points and had just two assists.

The Thunder had just 13 assists as a team but went 37-for-39 from the free throw line.

The Mavericks were hitting from three in Game 1 but tonight made just 5-of-23 attempts. Dirk led the team with 31 points and made all 11 of his free throw attempts.

The Thunder went small again a lot in the second half and fourth quarter with Derek Fisher on the floor instead of Ibaka. Fisher scored11 points in the game including a big 3-pointer to put the Thunder ahead 92-88 with 5:26 left in the game.

Dallas wasn’t able to exploit the Thunder going small as much because they went small too with Dirk at the five and a lineup with Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry and Delonte West.

The Thunder certainly have passed the test in these first two home games, grinding out close victories in both. They started defeat straight in the eyes twice and rose to the occasion each time. This is something that didn’t happen last year for them.

The series is not over though. Dallas is ready to go back home and defend their homecourt and wait to come back and steal one in Oklahoma City.

Game 3 will be played on Thursday night and the game will again be on TNT.

The Thunder lead Dallas 57-50 at halftime behind 15 points from Russell Westbrook and 14 from Kevin Durant.

Dirk Nowitzki is again looking like 2011 Playoffs Dirk with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Dirk had some chippy moments in the first quarter as well with Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins.

The Thunder went on a 21-4 run starting with 1:22 left in the first quarter and led 42-27 with just under seven minutes to play in the half. Dallas fought back some when Dirk checked back in.

Derek Fisher helped give the Thunder second-unit a nice lift scoring eight points on 4-for-5 shooting.

Jason Terry who was very hot from the start in Game 1 didn’t score until the final 30 seconds tonight and has just three points.

The Thunder are executing pretty well overall tonight and if they can turn up the defense some in the second half they should be able to come away with the victory. This game feels like the only way they’d let it slip away is if they suddenly went cold from the field.

A 2-0 lead heading to Dallas will be extremely important for the Thunder in this series.

Dirk Nowitzki and Kendrick Perkins exchanged some rough shoves early on in Game 2 of the first round series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks.

Nowitzki was frustrated by some physical work by Perkins on the offensive glass and lost his cool throwing a blatant elbow to Perkins’ chest. Perkins immediately retaliated with what almost looked like a punch.

The two received technicals and the incident didn’t escalate any further.

Nowitzki was frustrated a play earlier when he was hit in the face inadvertently by Serge Ibaka following a made jump shot and gave Ibaka a shove running back on defense.

The Thunder have played physical with Nowitzki because that is the best way to handle the reining Finals MVP. Nowitzki should be used to this but obviously felt it was excessive tonight.

The series is getting chippy.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder came back to win Game 1 at home against the Dallas Mavericks Saturday night thanks to Kevin Durant doing this.

Durant struggled in the game however going 10-for-27 from the field for 25 points.

The Thunder relied more on Russell Westbrook and his midrange game which was on point. Westbrook scored 28 points to lead the Thunder but his best work was his defense on Jason Terry in the fourth quarter.

Terry was 8-of-9 from the field with 20 points in the first three quarters before Westbrook switched on to him and held him to 0-for-1 shooting and 0 points in the fourth.

Dirk Nowitzki came alive in the fourth after a slow start and the Mavericks were truly looking like the team that win the NBA title last season. Nowitzki scores 11 points of Dallas’ final 13 points but Kendrick Perkins slows him down in the final minutes to help allow the Thunder to come back.

Oklahoma City played with a much better defensive intensity in the second half and they will need to repeat that in the first half of Game 2 to ensure another victory.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Serge Ibaka played great offensively with 22 points but can the Thunder expect that again from him tonight?

Durant will need to be more efficient and Westbrook will need to continue hitting his jump shot. But the Thunder need to get to the line more too only attempting 20 free throws in Game 1.

Westbrook only attempted one free throw and when he’s hitting his jumper sometimes becomes more one-dimensional in his approach. He needs to find a better balance with attacking and looking for his jump shot.

Dallas made 10-of-22 three-pointers and they shouldn’t shoot that high of a mark in Game 2 tonight.

It felt like Dallas played great and Oklahoma City was scrambling to get back in the game Saturday night. It is then very fortunate the Thunder are able to pull out the win and be in position to go up 2-0 tonight.

James Harden continues his strong play against Dallas in Game 1 with 19 points and 9-of-10 free throw shooting. He is the key for this Thunder team to go far in the playoffs and will be especially vital in this matchup with Dallas.

I look back at the games from the weekend and give my thoughts on all the series. I look at the Miami Heat and their now easier path to the NBA Finals and I explain why the Spurs should be the favorites to win the NBA title and how the Thunder could beat them.

You can also download the podcast here.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Late in the first of what was expected to be among many playoff games for the Oklahoma City Thunder, they found themselves down seven points.

The defending champion Dallas Mavericks led 94-87 with two and a half minutes remaining in the final quarter. After that point, the Thunder held the Mavs to just four free throws, and forced two turnovers.

A fierce Serge Ibaka dunk while getting fouled gave the Thunder a one-point lead. Dirk Nowitzki took back the lead with two free throws with nine seconds left.

The Thunder set up Kevin Durant with isolation on Shawn Marion. Durant drove to the basket, pulled up from 15-feet out and released what would be the final shot of the game.

The ball arced towards the rim; it hit the back of the iron and bounced for what seemed like forever. Eventually, to the fans delight, the ball dropped through the net, giving the Thunder the 99-98 lead.

The Mavericks failed to get a shot off as the buzzer sounded.

After as close of a game as it gets, the Thunder took a 1-0 series lead. The first round continues on Monday for Game 2 in Oklahoma City.

Kevin Durant- B+     25pts/6reb/4ast/4blk

The reigning scoring champ came up in the clutch for the Thunder like he has all season. Durant did not shoot all that well throughout most of the game, but when it mattered he hit the shot that mattered most. Shooting just 10-27 from the floor did not deter KD from taking shots late in the game. It’s unlikely he continues to shoot poorly in the series, which will help the Thunder avoid close games late.

Russell Westbrook- A     28pts/4reb/5ast/3stl

As expected, Russell Westbrook played really well in this matchup. The Mavericks don’t have the defense at the guard position to contain Westbrook, and it showed. He was able to shoot over 50% while navigating through the Dallas guards. On another note, Westbrook did turn the ball over five times, but that can be expected when he handles the ball as much as he does. Look for Westbrook to continue to play well throughout the series.

James Harden- A-     19pts/6reb/3ast/1stl

It looked like the Mavericks didn’t know how to defend James Harden. Unfortunately the same can be said for Harden guarding Jason Terry. The battle of 6th men turned out to be pretty even. Terry scored 20 to Harden’s 19, both very efficiently (Harden had 7 FGAs, Terry 10). One of the reasons James has been so good this season was because he got to the line often. This game was no different as he attempted 10 free throws, making 9 of them.

Serge Ibaka- B     22pts/6reb/1ast/1stl/5blks

Quite the unusual game for Ibaka. On defense he did manage to block five shots, but was pretty poor in guarding Dirk. He still struggles outside of the paint, and may not be put on him for a majority of the series. Oddly enough, Ibaka was pretty dominant on offense. He scored 22 points on 9-12 shooting, including a 3-pointer to end the first half. Also he showed flashes of post moves that we really haven’t seen all season, which was a nice surprise. A performance like this, offensively at least, is what the Thunder need to win this series.

Kendrick Perkins- A     0pts/8reb/1stl/1blk

Looking at that statline you wouldn’t think Perkins played well. That was definitely not the case in Game 1. I actually love that he didn’t score, it’s not what the Thunder want or need him to do. He played BEAUTIFUL defense on Dirk down the stretch, one of the biggest reasons OKC won the game. Hopefully Perk is guarding him whenever he is in the game, because if he can shut down Dirk for the most part, the Thunder won’t have a hard time winning.

Rest of the Thunder- C

Only five members of the team scored, all starters except for Perkins, adding Harden. Thabo Sefolosha, Nick Collison, Derek Fisher, and Daequan Cook all played fewer than 20 minutes and had little offensive impact. Thabo spent put in some solid defensive minutes on JET and Delonte West while Collison did the same with Nowitzki. Nazr Mohammaed, Royal Ivey, Lazar Hayward, and Cole Aldrich didn’t see the floor.

Dallas was executing everything and making clutch shots and the game looked like it was going to come down to the Thunder executing on offense, something they didn’t do last year in the playoffs and something that even this year they still receive a lot of heat for.

They did a great job last night.

Trailing 96-94 with 1:03 left in the game, Thunder head coach Scott Brooks called timeout and called for one of the Thunder’s best sets that they’ve been running recently.

James Harden inbounds to Russell Westbrook who sets up at the top of the key waiting for Kevin Durant and Kendrick Perkins to come up and set a double screen.

Westbrook comes off the Perkins pick to the right predetermined and waits for Perkins to set another pick on Durant’s man to try and free Durant up at the top of the key.

In the past few weeks when the Thunder have run this set it has every time gotten Durant wide open at the top of the key. Last night, Dallas defended it well and Westbrook didn’t make the defense commit too much on him so Durant was covered tightly by Shawn Marion at the top of the key when Westbrook passes to him.

Perkins stays around Durant, reading the defense and realizing that Durant isn’t wide open and sets a ball screen on Marion. Durant uses it well and gets into the paint by Marion and Perkins’ man Ian Mahinmi.

Dirk Nowitzki is forced to come up and help on Durant who is ready (having just dumped off to Serge Ibaka for a dunk a few possession earlier) to find Ibaka cutting who finishes with the and-one dunk.

This has been Oklahoma City’s most effective set the past few weeks and it was great to see them go to it out of a timeout when they really needed a bucket.

Dallas covering it well was kind of a blessing because if Durant had been left wide open and tempted to take the three, he may have gone for it and missed since he was off with his shot for most of the night.

This was a better set for Oklahoma City to run at this time because if they had gone to the Westbrook-Durant pick-and-pop (which they do often down the stretch), it may have just resulted in a switch and Durant forced into a tough isolation jumper.

This is evidence of the Thunder taking steps in the right direction with their play down the stretch of tight games.

Kendrick Perkins would guard Nowitzki the rest of the way.

The Thunder went on a 7-0 run after that with Perkins forcing Nowitzki into a missed three-pointer and then two turnovers on three of the next four possessions.

Nowitzki struggled to start the game but came alive in the fourth quarter and began looking like the Finals MVP again.

Ibaka is a great defender in his own right but the matchup with Nowitzki favors Dallas. Ibaka is better as a help-side shot blocker and playing up tightly on Nowitzki isn’t an easy task.

Perkins’ value was realized tonight and it was huge.

The Thunder were struggling earlier in the quarter trying to go small and get offense using Kevin Durant at the four. Durant’s shot was not falling so there was no advantage for the Thunder and they were giving up better interior defense by going small.

I love Durant at the four on offense but this team is better when they have Perkins and Ibaka out there with the big three.

That showed tonight and especially with Ibaka giving something offensively as well the Thunder looked their best in the final minutes.

Ibaka covered Nowitzki for most of the game but I think it will benefit the Thunder to have Perkins cover him some more that way Ibaka can also be used as the help guy to block shots.

The one problem here is that Perkins could get in foul trouble early if he’s matched up with Nowitzki. It will be up to the entire team to play with the intensity on defense they did down the stretch to help Perkins with this assignment.

Kevin Durant made a fading 15-footer over two defenders with a second left on the clock to give the Oklahoma City Thunder the 99-98 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of their first round series.

Durant was just 10-for-27 in the game and scored 25 points to go with six rebounds, four assists and four blocks.

The Thunder trailed 94-87 with 2:31 left in the game following a Dirk Nowitzki jumper. Nowitzki would score 11 of Dallas’ final 13 points in the game but once Kendrick Perkins switched on to him after this jumper, he would only score two more points. Nowitzki finished the game with 25 points.

Durant was struggling mightily from the field but found other ways to affect the game. He made a great pass inside to Serge Ibaka for an and-one finish with 1:47 left in the game that cut the score to 94-92.

On the next possession with Perkins bodying up hard on Nowitzki, Harden helped and stripped the ball from Nowitzki for a steal. Harden then found Durant filling the lane for the dunk to tie the game at 94 with 1:27 left.

The Thunder played great defense the following possession but the ball bounced the Mavericks’ way at the end of the shot clock and Ian Mahinmi got fouled and made two free throws to put the Mavericks back on top by two.

Scott Brooks called timeout with 1:02 left and the Thunder went to one of their best sets that they’ve run all year. Durant got into the paint and found Ibaka again for an and-one finish.

Nowitzki would finally get the best of Perkins on an up-and-under on the next possession but there was enough time left after Nowitzki’s free throws for Durant’s final heroics.

Durant was the MVP of the final minutes but it was a huge team effort for the Thunder to come back in this one.

They didn’t have enough defensive intensity in the first half and Russell Westbrook carried the offense and finished the game with 28 points and five assists.

Most importantly on Westbrook’s part was his defense on Jason Terry down the stretch. Terry had scored 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting in the game but did not score in the fourth quarter with Westbrook on him.

Ibaka was also great scoring 22 points in the game to go with six rebounds and five blocks and of course the clutch free throws and finishes down the stretch.

Things didn’t look good for the Thunder early in the fourth quarter. They were playing small with Durant at the four and they couldn’t protect the paint that way.

Harden helped lead the comeback too making seemingly every smart play including a few steals. He would finish with 19 points on just seven shots.

The Thunder showed in this game how they could let the Mavericks beat them and how they could beat the Mavericks. Perkins matched up with Nowitzki seems much better than Ibaka covering him and Westbrook did a fantastic job on Terry.

Dallas shot five more free throws than Oklahoma City in the game with Durant only shooting five and Westbrook just one.

Game 2 will be played Monday night at 9:30 p.m. EST.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Thunder have been slow starters quite often this year and that was the case tonight in the first playoff game of the year against the defending champs.

Kevin Durant started the game 0-for-4 but he Thunder were still close with Dirk Nowitzki starting the game 1-for-6.

Jason Terry gave the Mavericks a lift when he came into the game making his first six shots on his way to a 14-point first half.

Russell Westbrook carried the offense early for the Thunder. At the half Westbrook leads the Thunder with 13 points while Durant has 12.

Serge Ibaka scored 11 points including a three-pointer at the end of the first half, his first of the season. Ibaka and Durant each blocked two shots as well.

The Thunder are allowing Dallas to shoot 48.8 percent from the field so far and have attempted just five free throws compared to 11 for Dallas.

James Harden has scored 10 points in his first game back since the Metta World Peace elbow.

The Thunder seem to reliant on the jump shot thus far with the Mavericks allowing them space and enticing the attempt. Oklahoma City needs to get into more sets and attack the Dallas defense.

The game feels very similar to what these teams did last year in the Western Conference Finals and that is not a good sign for the Thunder.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Oklahoma City Thunder (47-19)
107.1 Offensive Efficiency (2nd)
100.0 Defensive Efficiency (9th)
95.7 Pace (5th)
56.7 True Shooting % (1st)
51.4 Rebound Rate (5th)

Dallas Mavericks (36-30)
101.0 Offensive Efficiency (20th)
99.7 Defensive Efficiency (8th)
93.6 Pace (16th)
52.7 True Shooting % (15th)
49.3 Rebound Rate (20th)

The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Dallas Mavericks will play Game 1 of their first round series tonight at 9:30 p.m. EST. It will be a rematch of the Western Conference Finals last year that the Mavericks won in five games.

The Thunder finished the season as the second seed in the Western Conference behind the San Antonio Spurs after looking like they were going to be the top seed for much of the season. The last three seeds in the Western Conference standings were decided in the final few games of the regular season and the Thunder drew Dallas while Denver got the six-seed and Utah the eight-seed.

Dallas was definitely the worst possible team to draw in the first round. While they had a down season compared to last year and aren’t the same team – no Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea or Caron Butler – they are still the defending champions and not the easiest matchup for the Thunder.

This year the Thunder won three out of four in the regular season against the Mavericks.

Here is how the Thunder offense stacks up against the Dallas defense.

Kevin Durant averaged 25.5 points and 8.3 rebounds per game against Dallas. Russell Westbrook averaged 22.8 points and shot .392 percent from the field against the Mavericks. James Harden averaged a line of 14.3-5.0-5.0 against Dallas and also struggled from the field at .390 percent.

Dirk Nowitzki averaged 22.5 points and shot .443 percent from the field in four games against the Thunder this year.

Nowitzki was of course the NBA Finals MVP last year but hasn’t been exactly the same player this regular season. He got off to a slow start and was admittedly out of shape. His game started to come around after some rest and he looked better.

Nowitzki is still one of the best post-up players in the NBA today but his shooting numbers dropped somewhat this season.

Oklahoma City will play Nowitzki straight up without a double so he will have his chances to get going against them. Last year by the time Dallas got to the West Finals against the Thunder, Nowitzki had already been playing the best basketball of his career in those playoffs. It may be tougher for him this year to immediately turn it on with the playoffs starting today.

Nowitzki killed the Thunder in Game 1 of last year’s series. He scored 48 points and went 12-of-15 from the field and 24-for-24 from the free throw line. That set the tone for the series.

While Dallas has lost Chandler and Barea this year, it was really Nowitzki who killed the Thunder last year and that’s why this won’t be the easiest matchup again this year.

Dallas isn’t scared of Oklahoma City either. They induce a ton of turnovers from the Thunder and just look like super veterans playing young kids at times.

Here is how the Dallas offense stacks up against Oklahoma City’s defense.

It must not also be overlooked how the Thunder have improved this year.

Harden only averaged 13.0 points per game in the playoffs last year. It was his coming out party and he was great but not the same Harden he is this season. He has taken on a much larger role with the team this year and has improved all-around.

Harden is extremely important against Dallas too because Westbrook struggles against them turning the ball over and Harden is a much better decision-maker with the ball.

Harden was only in his second season last year but there was a moment during the final game of that series when it looked like the Thunder had figured out how to beat Dallas.

It was by using Harden as the ball-handler and playing Westbrook and Durant off the ball. They have had great success this season doing that as well and it is when the Thunder are truly at their best and exploiting the strengths of everyone on the floor to the fullest.

These are back-to-back possession from the Thunder with Harden as the ball handler and Westbrook scoring two times in a row as a cutter. This is how the Thunder can really hurt the Mavericks putting them in this kind of position to try and defend Westbrook.

The Mavericks are going to show a lot of zone against the Thunder in this series for sure. The Thunder have much improved this year against the zone and are one of the better teams in the league playing against it.

Durant is the best zone offensive player because of his ability to shoot the three so easily over people.

The Thunder should win this series. They are the better team this year and have come a long way since last season.

It will be especially crucial for the Thunder to protect homecourt in the first two games because you know the Mavericks will be looking to steal one of those games.

Series prediction: Thunder in 6 games.

Dallas was one game behind Denver for the sixth seed in the Western Conference. If Dallas wins tonight and Denver loses then Dallas would jump Denver and avoid the Thunder in the first round.

At halftime of both games tonight, Dallas is trailing Atlanta 60-44 and Denver is leading Minnesota 61-42.

Unless two miracle comebacks happen, it looks as if the Thunder will get Dallas Saturday night.

The Thunder lost to the Mavericks in five games in the Western Conference Finals last year. Dallas of course went on to win the title riding the hot hand of Dirk Nowitzki. Nowitzki torched the Thunder in Game 1 of that series scoring 48 points while going 12-for-15 from the field and 24-of-24 at the line.

Oklahoma City played Denver last season in the first round and beat them handily in five games.

This isn’t the same Dallas team that they had last season but they do still have Nowitzki who was the main reason the Thunder lost that series.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder have the second-best record in the NBA this season at 39-12. They are the favorite to come out of the Western Conference and play in the NBA Finals. They are doing this despite their four best players being 23 or 22 years old.

The Thunder have been one of the more impressive teams to watch in the NBA this season. Every game they play in is filled with athletic highlights and incredible shot making. It is hard not to love this team and how they are put together.

But are the Thunder built for winning a title? Do the pieces really fit?

The criticism when it comes to the Thunder is usually directed at point guard Russell Westbrook and how he is not a point guard and how he shoots too much. I’ve made the argument that he is of course not a true point guard and is called on to do much more for the Thunder as a scorer as well, resulting in his high shot totals.

The real thing to note about the Thunder is how top heavy they are when it comes to usage rate. Usage percentage rates how much a player uses his team’s possessions counting field goal, free throw attempts and turnovers. This is a good way to help see how efficient a player really is.

I went back to 1980 and took a look at every team that won the title and what each of their player’s usage rates were in the playoffs for that championship run.

In the 1980’s, the teams that won were much more balanced and didn’t really on one star to carry much of the load. In 1985 the Lakers actually had five players with a usage rate of 20.0 or higher. Larry Bird had usage rates of 23.2, 25.9 and 23.3 in his championship years.

Things changed in the 1990’s and mainly because of Michael Jordan. Jordan has the highest usage rate of all-time in the NBA and his playoff usage rates were no exception. He recorded the highest playoff usage rate in 1993 at 38.0. During the Bulls’ title run from 1996-98, Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc averaged usage rates around 35-23-19, respectively.

When the Lakers started winning titles in the 2000’s, the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal duo became probably the best duo ever and their usage rates represented this for how close they were and how high too. Kobe averaged a 28.9 usage rate from 2000-02 and Shaq a 31.6. In 2001 they were the only teammates ever to both have usage rates above 30.0.

In fact, not that many players have usage rates over 30 on championship teams. Take a look at the players that did: Dirk, Kobe, Wade, Duncan, Shaq, Jordan, Olajuwon, Vinnie Johnson and Andrew Toney. So if you are going to shoot a lot, you better be one of the best players ever.

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This is where the Thunder come in. Westbrook and Durant both have usage rates over 30.0 this season. Westbrook has a higher usage rate than any point guard to ever start on a championship team. Not only that, but the trio of Durant-Westbrook-Harden’s combined usage rate this season is 85.2, higher than any other trio ever.

Last season in the playoffs when Westbrook received all of the heat for shooting too much, he had a usage rate of 34.4 while Durant was at only 29.0 and Harden 17.1. Again, not all of the blame should go to Westbrook here but that formula definitely isn’t going to work.

This regular season has Westbrook leading the Thunder at 32.7 with Durant at 31.0, Harden 21.5 and Serge Ibaka just 15.3.

I’ve said before that the sort of model the Thunder will need to follow to win a championship is that of the San Antonio Spurs’. They had a high-volume point guard in Tony Parker along with Manu Ginobili who is so similar to James Harden and Tim Duncan who had similar usage rates to Durant’s.

Parker had the highest usage rate ever by a point guard in 2007 at 29.2 when the Spurs won the title. Westbrook would probably need to get around that number for the Thunder to improve their title chances. If he does that it will mean more balance for the Thunder and probably a rise in production from Harden and Ibaka.

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The more you look at this Thunder the more you think they probably are one year away still. For Westbrook to get his usage rate down, it’s really just going to take Harden upping his and he is only in his third season this year and if he continues improving next season, this may very well happen. We have already seen instances this season when Harden becomes the primary ball-handler even with Westbrook on the floor.

The other thing that will probably start to happen next year is a growing of Westbrook as a playmaker. His assists are way down this season and that may be because he has become such a dominant athlete and scorer this year. Next year he should learn to better balance that with playmaking helping get Ibaka better involved as well as more looks for Durant and Harden off his passes.

The one thing the Thunder have working for them in terms of winning this season is that their biggest competition in the Eastern Conference, Miami and Chicago, also have issues with their usage rates.

The Heat have a similar top heavy big three in LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh who are combining for 87.3 usage rate, even higher than Oklahoma City’s big three. James and Wade are both over 30.0 which is something that only happened once in a playoff run with Kobe and Shaq. The highest usage rates for Jordan-Pippen was in 1993 when Jordan was 38.0 and Pippen 26.2.

An interesting thing happened for the Heat last year in the playoffs with James’ usage rate decreasing from his 2011 regular season mark of 31.5 to 26.9 with Wade’s remaining about the same over 30.0. This is the whole alpha dog issue with the Heat and what LeBron should do in the playoffs. You wouldn’t expect his usage to drop below 30 this postseason and really it should be higher than Wade’s. But we’ve never seen a team win a title with two perimeter players having such high usage rates.

As for the Chicago Bulls, it is no secret that they may rely too heavily on Derrick Rose to make every play on offense. Rose had a usage rate of 35.2 in the playoffs last season, higher than any other player and will likely have to carry a similar load this season, although Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer have improved some.

The toughest test for the Thunder may be the Spurs though. They haven’t shown any signs that they will be able to beat them in a playoff series and the Spurs added some pieces in Stephen Jackson and Boris Diaw that will improve their team even more come playoff time. This may not be the year the Thunder win it all but that really isn’t the end of the world. Next year should be their prime time but they still may be able to steal a title this season.

The first one was a study done on rebounding. Using SportVu’s technology, Rajiv Maheswaran, Yu-Han Chang, Aaron Henehan and Samantha Danesis tracked locations of rebounds and looked for a relationship between rebound locations, shot locations and offensive rebound rate.

The data was not terribly surprising but very interesting. In basketball, there is a common thought that the longer the shot you take, the longer the rebound and thus the better chance for an offensive rebound in some cases.

According to the study, the highest chance for offensive rebounds occurs for shots taken very close to the basket within four feet. This makes sense with there being a lot of tip-ins near the rim.

The offensive rebound rate then started to decline by almost exactly one percent every foot you moved away from the basket that a shot was taken. It continued to do this all the way to the three-point line at around 20-feet. But after you got to 20-feet, the offensive rebound rate began to rise more and more the further you went out all the way to 26-feet by the same percentage of one percent per foot.

This isn’t surprising since a lot of deep threes will result in unpredictable and rare acting rebounds. The interesting part is that the value of taking deeper shots pertaining to offensive rebound rate mirrors the same value of taking three-point field goals in terms of effective field goal percentage.

We know that taking a long two-pointer is the worst shot in basketball because it is a low percentage look and only worth two points. It makes sense to then take a three-point shot only a few feet further instead because it’s worth 50 percent more. It also now seems to make sense because not only will the shot be worth three points instead of two but you also have a significant better chance of getting the offensive rebound on three-pointers compared to long two-pointers.

We’ve seen this strategy in place in the NBA most notably by the Orlando Magic. The Magic surround Dwight Howard with a bunch of three-point shooters. They shoot as many threes as any team in the league and when they don’t, they try and throw the ball into Howard for shots in the paint. On paper, this makes more sense than anything else in basketball.

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But it’s funny when we think that LeBron James is doing something smart but not taking any threes like he was doing at the beginning of the season. All he was doing was not shooting threes but leading the NBA in long two-point attempts, shooting around seven per game and making only 40 percent of them. If James shot 30 percent on three-pointers, that is a more efficient rate.

As far as I’m concerned, the greatest strength of James is his strength. He shows this off on fast breaks with his dunks but even more so with the ease with which he tosses up 30-foot shots. I have a feeling that if James completely stopped taking two-point jump shots and just backed up to the three-point line and totally focused on that, that he’d become even more efficient in a way.

It’s amazing that every team that was won titles in the last 20 years or so has had one of their best players being someone that takes a lot of bad shots. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki are the best examples of this. A championship team needs someone that can basically post-up from 17 feet and make a few dribbles and throw up a fadeaway. But this kind of makes no sense.

I am guilty of this too when I ranked the best players in the NBA at the start of the season by player-types I valued this type of player over anyone else in terms of being needed to win championships. I called for James, Dwyane Wade and Kevin Durant to not shoot threes anymore and instead start posting up from 15-feet in and take worse shots.

If you really think about it there is one team out there that one championships playing a more efficient style of offense than the teams with Jordan and Bryant: the San Antonio Spurs.

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The Spurs surrounded Tim Duncan (the best post player in the league at the time of his titles) with a great penetrating point guard in Tony Parker, good defenders and three-point shooters and then the epitome of efficiency Manu Ginobili.

I think Ginobili is really the key here. He is a player that can make threes at a 40 percent rate and can drive to the basket at will in an unorthodox way getting to the line and finishing as well. The numbers say a player like this is the perfect player to have.

James Harden is the next player like this. He comes from the Ginobili-mold and is blossoming into a star this year. A time will come in the playoffs this year when the Thunder need to call on Harden to step up and take over and they will need him to do it with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook standing around the three-point line spotting up.

Will the Thunder be able to make this decision when they need to? Can head coach Scott Brooks look Durant and Westbrook in the eye and tell them to give the ball to Harden and get out of the way?

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Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook couldn’t throw it in the ocean and Dirk Nowitzki took over in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma City still hung on to win 95-91, good for their 13th straight home win this season.

Nowitzki scored 12 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, all of which came off three-pointers. His final three put Dallas ahead 91-87 with 2:46 left in the game. The Mavericks wouldn’t score the rest of the game.

After a scrambled possession by Oklahoma City, James Harden found Westbrook on the right wing for a three-pointer to cut the Thunder deficit to a point with 2:24 to play.

With 46 seconds left, Durant drove by Jason Kidd and dished off in the paint to Serge Ibaka who drew a foul by Nowitzki and proceeded to hit both free throws to give Oklahoma City the lead.

The Thunder played great defense on the next possession shooting passing lanes and forcing Jason Terry to throw up a desperation jumper over Kendrick Perkins as the shot clock expired.

The Thunder made enough free throws the rest of the game to come away with the victory.

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Durant shot 6-of-18 in the game and Westbrook 6-of-20. Harden was the key in the fourth as he scored 12 points in the first four minutes of the final quarter.

The Thunder have traditionally had turnover problems when playing Dallas but tonight turned it over 15 times compared to 12 for the Mavericks.

The Thunder held a huge advantage at the line going 29-for-33 from the stripe while Dallas only got there 10 times.

Oklahoma City really played great defense all night as Nowitzki was visibly frustrated for most of the game with the kind of physical contact he received. Serge Ibaka and Nick Collison did a solid job on Nowitzki as Ibaka made six blocks in the game.

It seemed like a game the Thunder really wanted to win from the start. Durant and Westbrook looked focused and were maybe too intense and not loose enough for the game. Dallas has Oklahoma City’s number in some regard despite the Thunder taking the season series this year winning three of the four matchups.

The Thunder can feel good after this one though. They definitely have exercised some demons beating the Mavericks tonight and weathering the Nowitzki hot streak from beyond the arc in the fourth.

Oklahoma City (30-8) will host Phoenix (17-20) Wednesday night for their next game.

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Thunder (1-game losing streak)
106.2 Offensive Efficiency (2nd)
99.2 Defensive Efficiency (13th)
96.0 Pace (6th)
56.8 True Shooting % (1st)
51.5 Rebound Rate (4th)

Mavericks (1-game winning streak)
99.4 Offensive Efficiency (19th)
96.4 Defensive Efficiency (4th)
94.0 Pace (15th)
51.8 True Shooting % (17th)
49.4 Rebound Rate (20th)

The Thunder lost for the first time in eight games two days ago in Atlanta. The Hawks were without Joe Johnson but got a great game from Josh Smith and the Thunder couldn’t hit any shots down the stretch.

The Thunder had turnover problems in the game and settled for too many jumpers. Those are also the kind of things that the Mavericks might make the Thunder do tonight.

Tonight will be a rematch of the Western Conference Finals where the Thunder committed a ton of turnovers and didn’t have an answer for Dirk Nowitzki.

On paper, Dallas seems like a team that Oklahoma City should be able to handle and they have this season beating them two of three times including the first time when Kevin Durant did this.

Dallas has really hit their stride of late and is finally looking like the defending champs. Nowitzki scored a season-high 40 in their last game when they beat Utah 102-96.

Tonight, Nowitzki will have to contend with Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison to get his points. Ibaka is having the best season of his career at least in terms of defense as he leads the NBA in blocks per game. Ibaka had 10 blocks against the Mavs the last time these teams played.

The last time these teams played Oklahoma City won 95-86 and Durant and Russell Westbrook each had big games.

Durant had 23 and 13 while Westbrook led the team with 33 points but had six turnovers to just four assists.

Westbrook has been averaging more assists lately however and is taking better care of the ball as well.

Nowitzki went 2-of-15 in that game and scored just eight points. That probably won’t happen tonight so the Thunder should be ready to play a better all-around game.

A problem of late for Oklahoma City especially when they are on the road is finding scoring from anyone other than their Big Three.

James Harden plays great against Dallas but will need to be a playmaker as well with the second unit so that the Thunder can get some production from that lineup. Last time Harden struggled from the field but did have nine assists against Dallas.

The Thunder are 15-1 at home this season and are looking to record the franchise’s first 13-game home win streak with a win tonight.

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Russell Westbrook was named to the Western Conference All-Star team as a reserve on TNT Thursday night. This is Westbrook’s second All-Star selection of his career.

Westbrook is averaging 22.3 points per game, 5.9 assists per game and 4.8 rebounds per game this season and shooting a career-high 45.9 percent from the field. Westbrook is also third among point guards in the West with a 22.56 PER.

Westbrook was pretty much a sure thing for the selection and joins Kevin Durant as the only two Thunder players to make the team. James Harden, however, did not make the cut.

Harden is second in the West in PER among shooting guards behind only Kobe Bryant this season. Harden is averaging 16.8 points, 3.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game while shooting 47 percent from the field and 87 percent from the line.

Tony Parker and Dirk Nowitzki both made the All-Star team, while both possibly less deserving than Harden.

Parker has come on late for the Spurs and has a 21.95 PER but was the fourth point guard selected onto the team. If a backup center must be chosen than why is selecting a backup shooting guard not also mandatory?

That being said, Monta Ellis who is averaging 22.6 points and 6.3 assist per game may have been the most deserving not selected to the team.

Harden does still have a chance to make the squad if one of the West players is injured between now and the game. So let’s have the entire Thunder nation rise and one and root for injuries until then.

The rest of the Western Conference reserves are: Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Steve Nash and Marc Gasol.

Andrew Kennedy is the Lead Editor of Thunderous Intentions and the Editorial Director of the NBA Division at FanSided. Follow him on Twitter or read more of his work at True Hoop Drew.