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.

Kevin Jairaj-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs 107-99 in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals to advance to the NBA Finals.

Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 34 points, 14 rebounds and five assists and played the entire game.

The Thunder lost the first two games of this series on the road before winning the final four games. They become just the 15th team in NBA history to come back from 0-2 to win a series.

Russell Westbrook poured in a nice night as well scoring 25 points to go with five assists and eight rebounds.

James Harden scored just eight points in the first three quarters but finished with 16 points including two huge threes in the fourth quarter.

The Thunder weathered a furious start to the game by the Spurs and Tony Parker in particular. Parker scored 17 points in the first quarter and finished with 29 and 12 assists.

Tim Duncan had a throwback game for him with 25 points and 14 rebounds.

The Thunder trailed by 18 points in the first quarter and for most of the first half. Durant made a very difficult 3-pointer at the end of the first half to cut the halftime deficit to 63-48.

The Thunder outscored the Spurs 32-18 in the third quarter and had all of the momentum headed into the fourth.

This was once again the passing of the guard. The Thunder will be the first team not named the Mavericks, Lakers or Spurs to represent the West in the NBA Finals since 1998.

Oklahoam City will await the winner of Boston and Miami in the East. The Celtics lead that series 3-2 with Game 6 in Boston tipping tomorrow night.

The Oklahoma City Thunder lead the San Antonio Spurs 54-41 at the half of Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals.

Kevin Durant leads the Thunder with 16 points.

James Harden has scored 11 points off the bench and Russell Westbrook has eight points.

Tony Parker leads the Spurs with 11 points.

The Thunder have held the Spurs to 40.0 percent shooting from the field and have forced 13 turnovers so far.

The Thunder look better in Game 3 and the rotation Scott Brooks is using has worked better.

Brendan Maloney-US PRESSWIRE

The San Antonio Spurs beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-111 Tuesday night to go up 2-0 in the Western Conference Finals.

The Spurs led by 16 entering the fourth and survived a furious Thunder comeback attempt to hold on for the win.

The Thunder cut the deficit down to six with 5:39 left in the game but that would be as close as they got.

The Spurs scored 37 points in the third quarter and led by as many as 22 points. The Thunder would turn to a hack-a-Splitter at the end of the third which helped them start to comeback.

Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 31 points to go with five assists and five rebounds. Durant had just four points in the fourth quarter though.

James Harden had a nice bounce-back game with 30 off the bench and was 10-of-13 from the field and the line.

Russell Westbrook struggled again for the most part shooting and containing Tony Parker. He would finish with 31 points, eight assists and seven rebounds and improved his defense on Parker in the fourth quarter.

Parker was the catalyst for San Antonio with 34 points and eight assists and was 16-of-21 from the field.

The Spurs shot 55.1 percent from the field in the game while the Thunder only shot 42.0 percent. The Thunder attempted 36 free throws in the game, had 16 offensive rebounds and had 26 fast break points.

The Thunder went on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 112-105 with 1:52 to play before Manu Ginobili stepped up and made a huge three on the next possession.

Ginobili scored 20 points off the bench and was again a really tough cover for Harden.

The Thunder did play small again in the second half but did it with Serge Ibaka on the floor. Ibaka was absent for the final 16 minutes of Game 1 but played a big role in this game with eight points, 10 rebounds and four blocks.

Ibaka played better defense on Tim Duncan than he did in the first game and allowed the Thunder to go to a defense where they could switch on almost every pick-and-roll.

When the Thunder turned up their defensive intensity, they once again gave their fans a glimpse of their potential and showed everyone why they have the highest ceiling in the league.

The Thunder have made huge strides this season but the Spurs are reminding them that their journey for a championship isn’t complete yet.

This series is far from over however heading back to Oklahoma City for Games 3 and 4. The Thunder have shown signs of how to beat the Spurs and if they can put an entire game together they could turn this series right around.

Game 3 will be Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. EST on TNT.

Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs are leading the Oklahoma City Thunder 55-44 at half time of Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals.

The Spurs shot 57.9 percent from the field in the first half while the Thunder shot just 36.2 percent.

The Spurs are doing their thing on offense moving the ball perfectly while the Thunder have been unable to slow them down and match them on the other end.

Kevin Durant and James Harden lead the Thunder with 14 points each.

Tony Parker leads the Spurs with 17 points and five assists.

Soobum-Im-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder led 71-62 after three quarters in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals in San Antonio. They had a great chance to steal one on the road and blew it.

The Spurs outscored the Thunder 39-27 in the fourth as they made a ton of their field goals at the rim.

Serge Ibaka only played 22 minutes in the game and didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter. Scott Brooks decided to go small more than usual and it ended up costing the Thunder the game.

The obvious adjustment as the Spurs were coming back in the fourth was to bring Ibaka back in. When the other team is relentlessly getting shots at the rim, you bring in the best shot blocker in the NBA.

The Thunder defense is much worse when they go small with Kevin Durant at the four. The only reason Brooks likes to go small is that he feels their offense improves with Durant at the four but that wasn’t the case last night either.

The Thunder became stagnant down the stretch as Russell Westbrook and James Harden did not have it going. The offense turned into nothing but isolation for Durant and while he was forced to play the entire second half and try and be the guy rotating over all the time on defense it just became too much.

The Thunder also had nine offensive rebounds in the first half and none in the second. As they weren’t hitting their shots, another reason to come back with Ibaka would have been to help crash the glass.

One of the possible reasons why Brooks elected to remain with the small lineup may have been because San Antonio was playing small with a lineup of Parker-Neal-Ginobili-Jackson-Duncan. That means Ibaka would have had to match up with a spot-up shooter, either Neal or Jackson, and Brooks maybe didn’t like the idea of that.

In a series, when one team is dictating lineup decisions or style of play, it always bodes well for that team. It would have been tough to cover all of the shooters with Ibaka on the floor with Kendrick Perkins but the Spurs would have had to adjust on the other end of the floor too. The Thunder were going to sacrifice something in this matchup no matter what.

People are going to point to Perkins being on the floor instead of Ibaka but that really wasn’t the problem. Perkins is a better post defender than Ibaka and that’s why Brooks had him out there instead.

Nick Collison may have been a better choice than Perkins to some as well but they give up a lot of rebounding when Collison is in so that totally would not have solved their problem either.

Derek Fisher and Thabo Sefolosha were the ones getting run instead of Ibaka. Fisher and Sefolosha both had good nights and that is also possibly why Brooks was okay staying with them.

The Thunder’s best lineup to close games is one we rarely see. It’s the obvious Durant-Westbrook-Harden trio with Ibaka and Collison. Instead, the Thunder are usually either small with Fisher or Perkins instead of Collison.

The Spurs run more pick-and-rolls than almost anyone and having the best pick-and-roll defenders on the floor is really important if the Thunder are going to win this series. Collison is the best at defending the pick-and-roll and Ibaka is the best at coming over for weak side blocks.

The Thunder are capable of winning this series but last night we didn’t really see the Thunder. That’s why it’s hard to take this Game 1 completely serious. Sure, the Spurs executed great down the stretch but we knew they would. It’s all about how the Thunder combat the Spurs’ offense.

They dropped the ball in Game 1 remaining small and it cost them an extremely important game. Without home court, the Thunder will have to win at least one in San Antonio to win the series.

If they can steal Game 2 then they’d need to win three straight against the Spurs if they also plan to protect home court. The Spurs have now won a franchise-best 19 straight games and haven’t lost since April 11.

It’s easy to overreact after one game in a series and it’s easy to have a hard time imagining a team adjusting well enough to win right after a loss.

The Thunder have the tools though. This team has surprised all year long with their growing maturity and path toward becoming a champion. Winning Game 2 in San Antonio is part of them taking the next step.

Soobum-Im-US PRESSWIRE

The San Antonio Spurs erased a nine-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to come back and beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-98 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals Sunday night.

The Spurs scored 39 points in the fourth quarter after trailing 71-62 after three quarters.

Manu Ginobili spearheaded the comeback and Spurs’ offense in general with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting off the bench.

Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 27 points and 10 rebounds but didn’t make a field goal in the fourth quarter.

Russell Westbrook and James Harden didn’t have it going on the night and that really cost the Thunder down the stretch as they became very one-dimensional and isolation-heavy.

Westbrook scored 17 points with five rebounds and five assists in the game but was 7-for-21 from the field and just 1-of-2 at the free throw line.

Harden uncharacteristically didn’t attempt any free throws in the game and finished with 17 points on 7-of-17 shooting.

The Thunder decided to go small a lot in the game and overall did not have much success doing so aside from a short stretch to finish the third quarter.

The Spurs were able to take advantage of the Thunder’s weakened help side defense in the paint when they were small and really attacked the rim with a lot of success.

The Thunder got out to a slow start in the game but got back into it behind a lot of energy on defense. They forced 14 turnovers in the first half and just two in the second.

Tony Parker had a quiet night for San Antonio with just 18 points and six assists but hit a few big shots late.

The Spurs went 8-for-24 on threes in the game and credit the Thunder defense for actively contesting a lot of those attempts.

The Spurs outrebounded the Thunder 50-43 in the game. The Thunder had nine offensive rebounds in the first half and none in the second.

Game 2 will be Tuesday night at 9:00 p.m. EST on TNT.

The Thunder and Spurs have both waited nearly a week to get back on the basketball court while the Eastern Conference figured out who would be in their conference finals.

The Spurs are widely considered the favorites to win this series as they have home court, swept the first two rounds of the playoffs and haven’t lost in general since April 11.

The Thunder are not to be overlooked though as they too are playing their best basketball of the season and present plenty of matchup problems for the Spurs. Here at Thunderous Intentions you can see our individual matchup previews of James Harden-Mani Ginobili, Russell Westbrook-Tony Parker and Kevin Durant-Tim Duncan.

The series isn’t only about the big three’s of each team. The Thunder and Spurs are the two best teams in the league right now because they are complete teams.

Here is how the Thunder offense stacks up against the Spurs defense based on their postseason play.

The pick-and-roll game will define this series maybe more than anything else. Both teams run pick-and-roll a ton and do it very well.

Both teams were running pick-and-roll right around 22-23 percent of the time in the regular season and have each upped that percentile to around 28 here in the playoffs which is expected as half court basketball is more prevalent now.

The Thunder get most of their production from their big three while the Spurs are more balance this year.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook each have been fantastic in the pick-and-roll so far in the playoffs. Durant has a PPP of 0.98 and Westbrook 0.99.

James Harden, who is normally the Thunder’s best pick-and-roll player, has actually dropped down from a PPP of 1.06 in the regular season to 0.78 in the playoffs. Harden still is a monster in the pick-and-roll and while he may be underperforming in that area in the first two rounds, this matchup with the Spurs should see Harden improve that number.

The Thunder’s ability to be effective in the pick-and-roll is a big deal when playing the Spurs who were 29th in the league in defending the pick-and-roll in the regular season and only two teams have been worse than them at it in the playoffs.

Now the Spurs have also been very good on offense relying on the pick-and-roll but the Thunder have been great at defending it, second-best among playoff teams.

In the regular season, Tony Parker had a lot of success against the Thunder including a 42-point night and became much more of a scorer the way OKC defended him. Westbrook’s defense on Parker and defensive strategy in the pick-and-roll will be interesting to look at early in Game 1.

The Spurs really get a lot of offense from spot-up shooting. Great passing teams like San Antonio that love to find open looks for not any particular player do this.

The Spurs get over 21 percent of their offense from spot-up shooting and that’s how they maximize the production of their role players.

Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, Gary Neal and Boris Diaw have all significantly increased their PPP on spot-up shots in the playoffs and that has had a lot to do with how dominant San Antonio was in the first two rounds.

The Thunder aren’t the greatest either at allowing open spot-up looks despite how athletic they are on defense. Oklahoma City has improved their overall defensive intensity in the playoffs and when both teams are bearing down the Thunder should be able to do a good job getting out and contesting on the Spurs’ spot-up shooters.

Discipline on the Thunder’s part will be huge in this series. If they get behind early and are in a sort of panic mode trying to come back in a game the Spurs will feast on them on offense.

This is where everyone is picking the Spurs. They have been there before and we know they are going to come out and execute very well.

The Thunder have the chance to implode, or at least that’s what people think. But the Thunder have come a long way this season and look like a team ready to take yet another step toward a championship this postseason.

Beating this Spurs team is the next step. They have the talent and are looking the part but it won’t be easy. It shouldn’t though and that’s what’s going to make this series so great.

The Thunder and Spurs are playing better than anyone in the NBA and will provide fans with some fantastic matchups. Here at Thunderous Intentions we’ve already previewed the James Harden-Manu Ginobili matchup and Russell Westbrook-Tony Parker matchup.

Soobum-Im-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant and Tim Duncan round out the teams’ big three’s and how they compare in this series will also be very important in deciding the outcome.

Durant and Duncan won’t guard each other but the production of each and what it means to their teams are similar. Both teams rely on Durant and Duncan as their two most established stars for their consistency and ability to take over at times (in different ways now).

Durant had a near MVP-season this year if it wasn’t for LeBron James. He led the league in scoring for the third straight season averaging 28.0 points per game and also averaged a career-high 8.0 rebounds per game.

Durant didn’t score the most he ever has but part of that was that he didn’t need to score as much as his team improved around him and he did up his shooting numbers posting a career-high .610 true shooting percentage.

Duncan is past his prime. This is no secret. But his play this season and especially lately still leaves him as one of the best big men in the game. He averaged 15.4 points and 9.0 rebounds per game this season in just 28.2 minutes per game.

Duncan has picked up his game in the playoffs now averaging 17.6 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks as the Spurs are 8-0 so far in the postseason.

If either Durant or Duncan is playing less than their averages in this series, the other team is suddenly in a great position. Durant’s level of play is easier to tell with numbers while Duncan’s impact doesn’t show up as much in those ways.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

In three games against the Spurs this season, Durant only averaged 22.7 points per game and shot .468 percent from the field. That is well below par for Durant but don’t expect to see those numbers in this series.

The Thunder didn’t play very well against the Spurs this season overall. This Thunder team is much better now with how they are playing in the playoffs and are doing a better job of getting Durant into rhythm.

Despite Durant’s overall lower numbers against San Antonio this year, the Spurs aren’t going to have an easy job containing him. Durant got many open looks against the Spurs in those three games and has the ability to get those looks on catch-and-shoots and post-ups.

The Spurs play great team defense but Durant is a huge mismatch problem for them. The Thunder have gone to Durant in the post more in the postseason although didn’t too much in the Lakers series because of Metta World Peace. Against San Antonio they will be able to and a “playoff-level engaged” Durant should be able to produce down there.

Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Stephen Jackson should draw the assignment of sticking Durant for most of this series. They are all fine defenders in their own right but Durant is much taller than either of them and they aren’t necessarily the physical type either that can cause Durant to struggle.

Expect easy looks for Durant or at least easier looks than what he got against the Lakers in this series.

If the Spurs go zone, and they probably will some, that’s only a good thing for Durant. The Thunder are one of the best teams in the NBA at attacking a zone and Durant is probably the best zone offensive player in the league because of his ability to easily shoot over one.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

While Durant’s greatest impacts will come on offense, Duncan is more about his defense and the way he defends the Thunder’s pick-and-roll game will be critical.

The Thunder run Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Durant in pick-and-rolls all of the time. This means Duncan will have a lot of responsibility coming out hedging and defending those three.

If the Thunder get into a good offensive flow they will be able to attack the Spurs’ defense and Duncan in particular with greater ease. If Duncan is very active and able to effectively force the Thunder ball handlers out of their rhythm then advantage Spurs.

Duncan is also pretty much the lone rim protector for San Antonio. He is one of the great shot blockers of all-time but it will be as hard as ever protecting the rim against this Thunder team.

Durant and Harden will certainly have moments throughout the series where they are able to get into the lane and score and it will be up to Duncan to make those looks tough ones.

On offense, Duncan will have to deal with Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka mostly. Duncan won’t be asked to post-up as much as he used to but the Spurs will still certainly go to it some.

The Thunder have some of the best post defense in the NBA and Duncan struggled from the field against the Thunder in the regular season and shot just .357 percent against them and averaged 13.3 points.

Durant and Duncan will not be matched up much if at all in this series but keep an eye on how each is playing in comparison to see which team has the upper hand. If either of them has a poor series then that will be devastating for their team.

Duncan has shown to still have the potential for “throwback Duncan” games these playoffs and if he’s throwing up 20-14-5 games then OKC will have a very tough time winning.

Durant is still sort of yet to have that breakout playoff series where he just simply goes off. It may be his time now as the Spurs aren’t totally equipped to make it too difficult for him. If we’re looking at 37-9-5 nights from Durant then the Thunder will not be losing many games, definitely not four.

1. The Spurs have seemingly played perfect basketball in the playoffs sweeping two inferior teams. Could this in any way be something that hasn’t prepared them for a team like the Thunder?

I don’t think so. As a Spurs fan (and I am a tad biased), I don’t see why we should give too much credence to the notion that playoff teams need to have a couple of close games under their belts to be considered legitimate. What’s so wrong about winning eight consecutive playoff games by an average of 13.8 points? How can we possibly find faults in a basketball team that dominated their opponents in such a way that left them emaciated and unwilling to continue? Isn’t winning eight consecutive games by 13.8 points more impressive than consistently edging out close wins? I think so. Plus, if you are really set on taking that approach to demean the Spurs’ accomplishments then look no further than their 24-point comeback against the Clippers in Game 3. That, more than anything, shows the moxie of this San Antonio team.

2. The Spurs’ offense is what makes them great while their defense isn’t the best. Is their defense good enough to win a championship?

Yes. It’s a big misconception to devalue the Spurs’ defense on account of their offense. In fact, it’s been the defense that has attributed to their winning streak as much, if not more, than the offense. I could go all nerdy on you but I’ll limit my sample size to their last eight games (ie: the playoffs). The San Antonio defense allowed 88.8 points per game against the Jazz and Clippers. Both teams ranked in the top seven in offensive rating. The Thunder allowed 91.9 points against the Mavericks and Lakers. They ranked 10th and 22nd in offensive rating, respectively. Of course, this trend goes farther than the playoffs when their defense started picking up steam in late-March but you get the point. Defense will not be the reason why the Spurs will not win a championships (I’m betting they do).

3. Normally depth and role players go by the wayside somewhat when the playoffs start. This hasn’t been the case for the Spurs so far. Will their depth and role players stop being such a strength at any point in the playoffs?

Nope. Their role players aren’t merely “role players” in the sense that they are expected to fill one specified role. A lot of these guys can fill many holes while still being effective. Plus, there are just so many guys that Pop can throw out there without missing a beat. They will always make an impact although sometimes it’s pretty subtle.

4. People talk about how difficult it is for the Thunder to contain the Spurs’ offense. How will the Spurs contain Durant, Westbrook and Harden?

A lot of praying and avoiding ladders. It’s going to be incredibly difficult and Oklahoma City will score 100 points multiple times in this series just because their talent warrants that amount of scoring. I just can’t get over their reliance on isolations; they represent 13.1% of the offense. That’s a lot. For context, their 0.87 PPP on isolations is only marginally more efficient than the Charlotte Bobcats recorded on screens away from the ball (0.85) and Charlotte ranked 21st in that category. Until they redistribute their possessions, I can still cling to some hope.

5. Predict the outcome of the series.

Spurs in five. My blood pressure doesn’t like the sound of a seven-game series and my gut doesn’t feel think closing out a Game 6 in Oklahoma City is a realistic possibility. Five is a little low, admittedly, but it just feels right in this instance. I’m not overly confident in this prediction.

The Spurs offense, thankfully, doesn’t conform to the league accepted policy of bludgeoning the defense into submission, recklessly and artlessly. Their offense predicates on ball movement, misdirections, multiple options, floor spacing, perimeter shooting and cohesiveness. Most teams don’t have enough technically intelligent and willing basketball players to replicate the Spurs’ system. Another important thing in their favor is continuity. Continuity allows the Spurs to continue plodding, dominating opposing teams without sacrificing offensive variance.

Variance is key. Variance keeps the defense guessing. Variance invariably leads to defensive mishaps, the likes of which are very favorable to the Spurs’ offense. Variance makes other options more effective by default. Defenders can’t expect a certain event to occur; they can only make educated guesses based on probability. A lot of teams fall into a repetitive pattern, making defense a lot easier.

A typical Spurs possession can either have A) pick-and-roll action with Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and, less likely, Gary Neal, B) weakside action that frees up Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard for forays to the rim, C) Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter, both effective roll man, taking advantage of soft interior defense, D) the aforementioned Green and Leonard spotting up, E) post-ups for Duncan, F) Boris Diaw utilizing his passing gits, etc etc. A lot of teams have the potential of offensive success but likely they succumb to isolations and poor execution. The Spurs aren’t one of those teams. Not only do they have a lot of options but these options are generally above-average options in terms of efficiency.

This is my favorite part, as a Spurs fan, to look for every night. We are treated to a surprise every night. There are the usual contributors but the Spurs are almost always receive unheralded contributions from a few rotation players. It could be Green knocking down open 3′s, Diaw grabbing rebounds and shooting 7-7 from the field, Leonard scoring in double-figures, Gary Neal and Matt Bonner stretching the defense and so on. The Spurs are unpredictable. (Hence my overemphasis on variance earlier).

Their only weakness is on post-ups. San Antonio scores 0.76 points per possession on post-ups, putting them 26th in the league. Duncan tends to dominate this possession type and even a player of his stature doesn’t produce at an average mark. 9.2% of San Antonio’s possessions come from post-ups which is a little high given their lack of success. But that’s nitpicking.

Pick-and-rolls are very important in the Motion “Weak” offense. Parker and Ginobili are adept at making the right play — Parker has made a lot of strides in this department — and the big man simply take advantage of the lack of attention. DeJuan Blair and Tiago Splitter aren’t players you can rely on to create for themselves but within the confines of the pick-and-roll they excel. Splitter averaged 1.31 PPP as the roll man in the pick-and-roll, a number that is only bested by four players in the entire league. Blair isn’t too far behind with a 1.17 PPP that puts him in the top 20. Not too shabby.

Spot-ups come as a direct result from pick-and-rolls and action off the ball. San Antonio is adroit at freeing up space for their shooters as their 1.02 PPP suggests. Spot-ups represent an abnormally high percentage of the Spurs’ offensive distribution (22.8%). This gives credence to the notion that building an offense around the perimeter isn’t so bad.

I could go on and on about this Spurs offense, including their transition offense, cutting ability and surprisingly reliable isolations, although isolations only represent 7.1% of their distribution. But that would be overkill.

The moral of the story? The Spurs are an elite offensive team and their offensive tendencies are unprecedented.

Can you name another NBA team that incorporates every player into the offense as effortlessly as San Antonio?

Michael Hickey-US PRESSWIRE

LeBron James had one of the best games of his career Sunday as the Miami Heat beat the Indiana Pacers 101-93 to tie the series at 2-2.

LeBron played 44 minutes and scored 40 points to go with 18 rebounds and nine assists. He was 14-of-27 from the field, 12-of-16 at the line and also had two steals and two blocks. He did this in a must-win game for the Heat where they were without Chris Bosh and the performance also seemed to wake Dwyane Wade.

No one in the NBA is capable of filling up the stat sheet like LeBron is. But we’re not going to see LeBron doing this if the Heat make it to the NBA Finals.

LeBron and the Heat are probably the best team in the Eastern Conference right now and they should be very thankful that is the conference they play in. With the way the Heat have played this season and in the playoffs so far they may not have made it out of the first round if they were in the West.

That may be a little unfair since LeBron and the Heat tend to play to their competition. We haven’t seen the best of the Heat yet because they haven’t needed to show it.

But like the Heat found out last year in the NBA Finals, it isn’t that easy to suddenly flip the switch when your backs are against the wall. They were able to yesterday but let’s not forget who they are playing. Indiana is a nice team and a decent matchup against Miami but they really shouldn’t be winning this series even with Bosh out.

Soobum Im-US PRESSWIRE

Waiting for the Heat this year in the NBA Finals won’t be Dallas and Dirk but most likely San Antonio or Oklahoma City.

The Spurs are the best team in the NBA by far and especially lately. They haven’t lost since April 11 and they have the championship experience in their best players and head coach necessary to continue playing at this level.

The Thunder are the most talented team in the NBA right now with the highest ceiling. When they play to their potential which they are fully in control of and doing a lot in the playoffs, they will beat anyone.

The Spurs and Thunder would also each have home court if they play the Heat in the Finals. This actually does matter since the Heat haven’t been great on the road this season and the Spurs and especially the Thunder are nearly unbeatable at home.

Watching the Western Conference makes it frustrating to hear the talk surrounding the Heat and LeBron: “After yesterday’s game, the Heat are now back as one of the title contenders and possibly the favorite. If LeBron can play like he did yesterday for the rest of the playoffs, no one’s beating them.”

That’s not fair because LeBron doesn’t always play that way and certainly won’t against the Spurs or Thunder.

It is becoming evident that the Miami Heat this year would need LeBron to play like he did yesterday for an entire series if they are going to win the championship and that still could possibly not be enough.

It isn’t quite clear yet whether the Spurs or Thunder would be the toughest matchup for Miami, only that either should beat them.

San Antonio, very much like Dallas last year, would kill Miami with their ball movement and perimeter shooting. Tony Parker would have a field day as most point guards do against Miami and Tim Duncan would likely continue his “throwback” play against them.

The Spurs wouldn’t be the best at making things difficult on LeBron and Wade though. Their wings are nice and have really bought into defense but LeBron and Wade could have big series against them.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Thunder would be able to do a much better job of containing LeBron and Wade. Kevin Durant is showing growth on defense and is underratedly becoming the best possible player to have guard LeBron. He shut down Kobe in crunch time of Game 4 against the Lakers and did a very nice job against LeBron in the regular season.

The worry for OKC would be their offensive efficiency against Miami’s defense. The Thunder can be up and down in this area but thanks to James Harden are making significant strides on offense these playoffs.

The Thunder would also have a huge advantage inside with Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka and Nick Collison and would be the more physical team all series long.

The point is: good for you LeBron and Heat for showing up yesterday with a great game. It should never have come to this. They should have had the best record in the NBA this season and should never be trailing in any series with a team from the East.

Let’s not lose perspective of what is really happening in the playoffs right now. The NBA Finals will truly start in a few days when the Spurs and Thunder begin their series.

Tim Duncan scored 21 points to go with nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks in another throwback Duncan game.

Duncan had a great series against the Clippers averaging 21.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists while shooting .594 percent from the field.

Chris Paul finally had a decent game for Los Angeles scoring 23 points to go with 11 assists but it wasn’t enough.

The Spurs were by far the superior team in this series and are frankly by far the best team in the NBA right now. The Spurs haven’t lost yet in the playoffs as they also swept the Utah Jazz in the first round and haven’t lost at all since April 11.

The Spurs will await the winner of Oklahoma City and the Lakers. The Thunder currently lead the series 3-1 with Game 5 tipping off tonight at 9:30 p.m. EST.

The Spurs trailed the Clippers 33-11 after the first quarter and it looked as if they would finally lose in these playoffs.

The Spurs went on a 24-0 run in the third quarter and outscored Los Angeles 26-8 in the third quarter to get back in the game, take the lead and eventually win the game.

San Antonio is now up 3-0 in their series with the Clippers and still yet to lose in the playoffs.

Tony Parker led the Spurs with 23 points and 10 assists while Tim Duncan also had a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds.

Chris Paul was very quiet again scoring just 12 points with 11 assists and was 5-for-17 from the field. Paul is averaging 9.3 points, 8.7 assists and shooting .308 percent from the field in the series.

The Spurs haven’t lost a game since April 11 and continue to look and play like the best team in the NBA.

Up 3-0 in this series they are almost certainly advancing to the Western Conference Finals where they will play either Oklahoma City or the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Thunder and Lakers will play Game 4 tonight at 10:30 p.m. EST with the Thunder up 2-1 in that series.

You can also download the podcast here.

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

The Indiana Pacers have surprised a lot of people this season. Last night, they beat Miami at home 78-75 to even the series at a game apiece.

The Miami Heat were without Chris Bosh for the game and may not get him back for the rest of the series. They did seem to miss him as Bosh was someone who was going to be a tough matchup for the Pacers.

LeBron James scored 28 points to go with nine rebounds, five assists and six steals in the game but was not the one head coach Erik Spoelstra was designing the plays down the stretch for.

Dwyane Wade was that guy and finished the game with 24 points on 8-of-22 shooting. Wade had a chance to tie the game with 16 seconds to play and missed a driving layup with George Hill covering him.

Neither team played exceptionally well again with the low scoring but you have to credit Indiana for pulling this one out and playing great defense.

The Pacers outrebounded the Heat 50-40 in the game and took advantage running the floor to with 13 fast break points.

Indiana is closer to even with the Heat now that Bosh is out but the Heat could still win this series. It just got a lot tougher and if they don’t improve from Game 2, the Pacers could easily pull off the upset.

Soobum-Im-US PRESSWIRE

The San Antonio Spurs once again looked like the best team in basketball last night beating the Los Angeles Clippers 108-92 in Game 1 of their series.

Tim Duncan had another throwback game scoring 26 points to go with 10 rebounds and two blocks.

The Spurs play the best basketball in the NBA and have the personnel to pull it off with fantastic ball movement, perimeter shooting and decision-making in general.

The matchup between Chris Paul and Tony Parker was highly anticipated but didn’t live up to much in Game 1 with Paul scoring six points with 10 assists and Parker seven points with 11 assists.

The Spurs shot 48.8 percent from the field in the game and made 13-of-25 3-pointers. Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Manu Ginobili each connected on three treys.

Offense seemed easier to come by for the Clippers early on compared to their series vs. Memphis but they couldn’t stop the Spurs on the other end and it just became too much to handle.

Soobum Im-US PRESSWIRE

The San Antonio looked like the best team in the league today. And they might really be just that.

The Spurs won Game 1 at home against the Utah Jazz 106-91 Sunday.

Tony Parker led the Spurs with 28 points and eight assists and looked like the MVP-candidate he became this season.

The Spurs are just so fun to watch and play such perfect basketball. Now, they have a great offense this year and their matchup against Utah is a good one since Utah has the worst defense among playoff teams.

Every single player knows their exact role for the Spurs and today they all executed seemingly perfect.

Tim Duncan had a nice throwback game with 17 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.

Every possession has so much purpose for this team and unless Utah is going to play their very best basketball, the Spurs will win every game in this series.

They should be considered the favorite to win the NBA title right now. They won’t be though and that’s how they like it.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Andrew Bynum recorded a triple-double as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets 103-88.

Bynum scored 10 points to go with 13 rebounds and 10 blocks. The size of the Lakers’ bigs was just too much for the Nuggets to handle today.

Denver was fine beating their defenders off the dribble but with Bynum and Pau Gasol waiting for them they could not capitalize. The Lakers had 15 blocks as a team and held Denver to 35.6 percent field goal shooting.

If Denver is ever able to dictate the pace and tempo of a game against the Lakers they can win but the Lakers’ style is closer to what we always see in the playoffs so don’t expect that to happen enough for the Nuggets to have a real shot.

The Lakers know their identity and while the Nuggets do too to an extent, they don’t have the same kind of talent to execute their game plan well enough.

Kobe Bryant scored 31 points and Gasol had 13 points, eight assists and eight rebounds.

Denver is overmatched in this series and the Lakers should easily move on but they are known for being kind of “out of it” now and then so the series may still go six.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City had the toughest time winning their first playoff game of the top three seeds in the West.

But the Thunder are matched up with the defending champion Dallas Mavericks who looked like just that last night.

Kevin Durant’s heroics have been the best part of the playoffs so far but hopefully for the Thunder, they will not need to rely on that to get by the Mavericks in this series.

Assuming Oklahoma City does advance, San Antonio still looks like by far their toughest potential matchup. The Spurs played great in the regular season against the Thunder and have been great overall of late and today.

The way that the Thunder turned up their defense in the fourth quarter tonight is a really good sign though. If Russell Westbrook can play the kind of defense he did last night on Jason Terry for the rest of the playoffs, then the Thunder are looking pretty good.

The Lakers’ weakness of giving up dribble penetration is not an issue against Denver but if they plan Oklahoma City in Round 2, the Thunder will be able to make Los Angeles pay.

The Thunder will play Game 2 at home against the Mavericks tomorrow night at 9:30 p.m. EST on TNT.

Head on over to Air Alamo and Lake Show Life for FanSided’s coverage on the Spurs and Lakers.

You can also download the podcast here.

In the first ever FanSided NBA Podcast I interview our very own editor of Sir Charles in Charge Chris Walder. Chris came on to give his thoughts on Dwight Howard and his fallout with the Orlando Magic, the chances of Boston and New York making playoff runs, who the MVP of the NBA is so far this season and who the favorites are to win the NBA title.

Be sure to listen to the podcast here or you can also download the podcast.

Follow Chris on Twitter @WalderSports

Richard Mackson-US PRESSWIRE

The Kentucky Wildcats advanced to the Final Four Saturday night beating Louisville. The will be the second time that John Calipari has taken a team to the championship game since 2008 when he did it with the Derrick Rose-led Memphis Tigers.

This year Calipari’s squad is led by another freshman by the name of Anthony Davis. Davis has been the most dominant player in college basketball this season especially on the defensive end. He is the no doubt number one overall pick of the upcoming NBA Draft as well.

The only question is: what kind of NBA player will Davis be?

For how incredible Davis has been this season, he isn’t exactly the prototypical mold of a superstar in the NBA. I’m not saying that he doesn’t have the talent but his build and game resemble the likes of Marcus Camby and someone like Brandan Wright to some degree. I’d say he is better versions of those players but he isn’t an electric wing scorer or huge big man as much as he is the versatile tall, thin athlete type.

He’s also not Kevin Durant. Now let’s take a moment to think about how awesome Durant is. He kind of makes Davis seem not all that. They have similar builds except Durant has the handle of a guard and sweetest jumper from 30-feet maybe ever. It’s not fair to compare anyone to Durant but for some reason when I see Davis (probably because of his build) I expect more Durant in him. He is a way different player but I think could have superstar potential as well.

Davis is the most dominant college player that is also the sure number one pick since who? Kenyon Martin or Tim Duncan? This guy is ridiculously talented and he is a sure thing in the NBA too as far as I’m concerned.

I have a couple of questions about Davis that I will naturally answer myself.

Can he be a center in the NBA?

I think he can in the right system. I like him as a player that handles the ball a lot on offense and I think he is big enough and his defensive instincts are good enough to handle covering opposing centers. It’s not like anyone’s saying he needs a center to play alongside him once he gets into the league and the center position isn’t that deep anyway. He’ll have trouble with Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum but that’s about it. Instead of a point-forward, he could maybe become the first point-center.

Is he the type of big that will need to play alongside a great point guard?

He would be awesome with a great point guard but wouldn’t we all. He is a great finisher on alley-oops and very quick getting shots to the rim after a catch inside. He also scores a lot from offensive rebounds and can create himself to a degree off the dribble and with the jumper. I have no doubt that he will be able to eventually develop a very formidable post game. He is so skilled and has so much more room to grow with learning how to be a big man. Remember he was only 6-foot-2 two years ago. His offense has room for improvement and he will definitely get better. He won’t need a great point but it would of course help.

Can he be a 20-10 guy?

Right now the type of player he looks like seems like he’d peak around 17-13-4 or some stat line like that. Does he have more potential in the scoring department though? I think he can like I mentioned above his skills are so great and his touch is something too. I think he develops a great arsenal of post moves and has the potential to be one of the best in the league at scoring from the block. Maybe a little Kevin McHale potential in some ways? Maybe I’m the only one that’s questioning his scoring?

Will he ever be the best player on a championship team?

I know. Too early to tell. But there are guys who come into the league where you can immediately envision this. LeBron, Howard, Durant. Davis seems like the type that would become an awesome second option on a title team like Pau Gasol is to Kobe Bryant. But the way the league is turning into such a point guard driven league I think that future champions will eventually have point guards as one of their top two players alongside a player like Davis. In six years will be a top five player in the league? Could he become the Defensive Player of the Year by that point and surpass Kevin Love and Blake Griffin as the best power forward? I believe he has this potential and will reach it.

Anthony Davis is the future mold of superstars in the NBA. Centers were the thing years ago then the Jordan-type was the next superstar. Durant has given us a taste of the alien-like tall guys who are super skilled. Davis is the next one. He will join Rose, Howard, LeBron and Duncan as the top five best number one overall picks of the last 15 years.

It’s just too bad I always think of Durant when I watch Davis play and question why he isn’t stroking 30-footers on a regular basis.

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.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

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.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

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 Oklahoma City Thunder couldn’t exercise their demons against the Spurs Friday night losing 114-105.

The Thunder got off to one of their signature slow starts and couldn’t amount enough of a comeback to get the victory at home against the team with the second-best record in the Western Conference.

Russell Westbrook kept the Thunder afloat like he so often does and led the team with 36 points. Kevin Durant scored 25 points in 43 minutes. James Harden had 19 points off the bench to go along with five assists and seven rebounds.

Tony Parker lit up the Thunder for 42 points in the teams’ last meeting and was effective again last night scoring 25 points to along with seven assists.

The big problem for Oklahoma City was Danny Green and DeJuan Blair combining for 43 points for the Spurs. The Thunder simply aren’t going to beat San Antonio allowing that kind of production from their role players.

The Thunder allowed the Spurs to shoot nearly 52 percent from the field last night and that’s something that obviously can’t happen in the playoffs. The Spurs who will add Manu Ginobili and Stephen Jackson to their cast that topped the Thunder last night are suddenly appearing as the legit two-seed that can challenge the Thunder for a spot in the NBA Finals.

Soobum Im-US PRESSWIRE

Thunder (1-game winning streak)
106.7 Offensive Efficiency (2nd)
99.5 Defensive Efficiency (11th)
95.9 Pace (4th)
56.9 True Shooting % (1st)
51.3 Rebound Rate (5th)

Spurs (2-game winning streak)
105.6 Offensive Efficiency (4th)
101.6 Defensive Efficiency (16th)
94.0 Pace (16th)
54.7 True Shooting % (4th)
49.9 Rebound Rate (17th)

The Oklahoma City Thunder are coming off an impressive 103-90 win last night over the Denver Nuggets. The Thunder made a season-high 12 three-pointers in the game.

Yesterday was the NBA trade deadline and while the Thunder stood pat with their roster, San Antonio did not trading away Richard Jefferson and a first-round pick to Golden State for Stephen Jackson.

Jackson previously played for San Antonio from 2001-03 and won the title with the team in the 2002-03 season. Jackson will bring some added offense to the Spurs who currently sit second in the West in terms of record behind only the Thunder.

The last time these two teams played Tony Parker put on a clinic scoring 42 points and dishing out nine assists. The Thunder had no chance in that game being played in San Antonio.

Tonight the Thunder will look for payback at home only this time the Spurs will also be with Manu Ginobili who has returned from injury and continuing his fine season.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Thunder also have a player back from injury in Thabo Sefolosha who played his first game last night after missing the previous 23. Sefolosha brings back some athleticism and defense to the starting lineup and allows for the Thunder to return to their original rotation from earlier this season bringing Daequan Cook off the bench.

Kevin Durant did not play very well against the Spurs last time scoring only 22 points and neither did Russell Westbrook who scored 18.

The game was only kind of close because of the Thunder bench which made runs with Parker out and kept the score respectable.

The Thunder have been prone to slow starts this season and can’t afford that against a quality team like the Spurs.

It is unlikely that Jackson will play tonight but the return of Ginobili should present a bigger challenge for the Thunder tonight. They are going to need to be clicking on all cylinders to make sure they come away with a victory.

Westbrook should be motivated to take on the challenge against Parker tonight and hopefully that results in a good thing for the Thunder.

James Harden went 0-for-3from three against the Spurs last time but hit four threes last night. The Thunder will need Harden and the rest of the second-unit to play well as the Spurs get a lot of production from their bench.

The game will tip at 9:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.

Below are the questions I asked Quixem:

AK: What is the confidence level for Spurs fans right now with this team? Another impressive regular season as a top-2 seed in the West currently but it feels like no one is giving them too much credit and that probably has a lot to do with the first round loss last season. Do you feel like the legit 2-seed in the West?

QR: No one ever gives the Spurs credit. As a progressive fan base, we’ve accepted that. Embraced that. And yes, I’d say there is definitely an aura of confidence among Spurs fans. There is some (and I include myself to an extent) that are a little wary of proclaiming this team a contender. That stems from our 61-21 record last year and the subsequent disappointment we endured after the Spurs were ousted from the playoffs in six games — to an eight seed. The Grizzlies were an impossibly unfortunate matchup for the Spurs so keep that in mind.

The emergence of Tiago Splitter, Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green give me hope that this team will not have the same fate as last years squad. Although we aren’t going to have the same winning percentage as last year, I feel like we’ll have more playoff success. Just my gut.

AK: Thought on the Stephen Jackson trade? How does this help the Spurs? How might it hurt them?

QR: I don’t know how to approach the Stephen Jackson trade. Part of me really likes the deal and part of me feels indifferent. Defensively, this trades a wash. RJ was never able to improve defensively as a Spur but, even so, it was pretty apparent that he gave a crap. I always appreciated that. He approached his demotion — check out his tenure with New Jersey, he was electric — with humility and grace. He came to the Spurs as an athletic, uber confident player. His first year wasn’t good for his self-confidence. It took awhile to adjust, but give him credit for embracing his new role as a spot up shooter (he was decidedly below average until recently).

That being said, I was ready for RJ to leave. A recurring theme was his propensity to disappear. When he’s aggressive, the Spurs are always better. When he’s not, he’s just a waste of space. Stephen Jackson has a reputation for being a bad teammate but Tim Duncan swears that he was a great teammate. I believe him. Jackson will bring a lot of energy and heart to the team. Who cares if he’s an inefficient scorer at this stage of his career?

AK: The Spurs beat the Thunder last time with Parker scoring 42. Do the Spurs feel like an underdog against the Thunder or are they confident they can beat the Thunder in a series?

QR: The Thunder are an amazing team. I can only imagine the excitement of the Thunder fan base. They’re so young, so talented, ripe with potential. That being said, I don’t think the Spurs feel like an underdog against the Thunder (I think the Spurs are 7-1 in their last 8 against OKC but I could be wrong). We specialize on beating teams down with execution and sound fundamentals. I think, in those two areas, the Thunder leave something to be desired. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Spurs beat the Thunder in a seven game playoff series.

AK: What would be the worst playoff matchup for the Spurs?

QR: I’m still a little better so I don’t want to play Memphis. It would be nice to kick their ass though. Any team with legitimate size can pose a threat to our team. The general consensus among Spurs fans is that we need another big man (either a defensive minded center or power forward that can guard stretch 4′s and stronger 4′s). I wouldn’t want to see the Lakers either. Bynum and Gasol are tough. Plus, Jordan Hill gives them some frontcourt depth.

AK: A healthy Manu Ginobili is one of a kind. If Ginobili is 100 percent in the playoffs does that make the Spurs a real title contender?

QR: Definitely. Absolutely yes. Prior to his injury, Manu was playing at a LeBron James level (small sample size but his PER was higher than LeBron’s). Manu is the ultimate X-factor. He is an adept passer off pick-and-rolls, has a genuine sense of the moment and can change the tenor of a game by himself. Now that Tony Parker is playing at an MVP level and Timmy is still producing well on a per-minute basis, the Spurs are definitely a title contender.

Just please stay healthy Manu. Please.

Head over to Air Alamo to see the questions I asnwered about the Oklahoma City Thunder and follow Quixem on Twitter @LWM_sucks.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

James Harden’s rookie contract will be up after the 2013-14 season. The Oklahoma City Thunder of course plan to re-sign he and Serge Ibaka at this point. This could become tricky considering that in 2015 Harden will be the best shooting guard in the NBA.

This past week we saw Harden play some of the best basketball of his career with games scoring 30 then 33 points, both career-highs at the time. Right now Harden is coming off the bench averaging 17.2 points per game with a 21.4 PER. He won the Sixth Man of the Year award in the first week of the season.

In terms of PER, Harden is only behind Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and Many Ginobili as far as shooting guards are concerned. I’ve said before that Ginobili is the type of player Harden is turning into.

Three years from now those three are going to decline considerably and Harden will be all of just 25 years old. There aren’t many other shooting guards out there who are going to be challenging Harden as the best at their position in the league.

Let’s go through the contenders assuming to not count anyone who is not yet in the league since they would only have been in the league for two years anyway by 2015.

Eric Gordon, Monta Ellis, Paul George and MarShon Brooks are Harden’s competition. They all have at least an outside shot of passing Harden but it is unlikely especially considering their current playing situations.

Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

The Thunder are going to have a chance to have on their team in 2015 the best small forward in the league (Durant), a top three point guard (Westbrook) and the best shooting guard (Harden) and maybe even the best low-post defender (Ibaka). That is crazy to think about how good this team’s future looks.

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s kind of important to have a good two-guard if you’re interested in winning championships.

In the last 12 years, the best two-guard on the team that won the NBA title scored an average of 22.5 points per game, significantly higher than any other position. Having a shooting guard who can fill it up is an essential ingredient toward winning championships.

People love to salivate over the all-around small forward but having your best player be a “jack of all trades” type doesn’t seem to necessarily result in championships as much.

Since 2000, only Paul Pierce has averaged over 13.3 points per game as the starting small forward of a championship team. Usually teams that win the title have a defensive stopper as their small forward.

Kevin Durant is obviously the small forward of the future for Oklahoma City and will always be their leading scorer. The direction Durant is headed as an offensive player is (hopefully) closer to the player that Dirk Nowitzki became in the playoffs last season (back to basket scorer).

The future makeup of the Thunder is starting to remind me more and more of the Spurs of the last decade. Durant is the Tim Duncan of the team as the reliable post-up scorer. Russell Westbrook is the lightning quick point guard who is score-first like Tony Parker. And James Harden is of course the Ginobili coming off the bench.

Before I sometimes questioned the makeup of the Thunder team in terms of where they got their offense from and if it could work in winning a championship. But the more you watch them grow together and try to project their future makeup it really makes you see just how good they are going to become.

The key to all of it is going to be Harden flying under the radar and becoming the best two-guard on the planet.

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.

Jim O'Connor-US Presswire

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.

Jim O'Connor-US Presswire

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?