The Western Conference Finals is shaping up to be the kind of back-and-forth affair many have been expecting from the top two teams in the NBA. Game 1 resulted in a 119-106 victory for the Golden State Warriors and Game 2 ended with the Houston Rockets on top 127-105.
In both games, there was only one who played consistently well for either team — Kevin Durant.
The Warriors’ top scorer and shot-blocker has more than justified the need for the team to pursue him two summers ago. In Game 1, Durant scored a team-high 37 points, leading the Warriors to a big win. Though Game 2 resulted in a loss, it wasn’t in any way Durant’s fault, as he finished with 38 points leading both teams in scoring. He simply didn’t receive help from fellow All-Stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson who combined to score a measly 24 points on 10-of-29 shooting.
It was a game that highlighted the x-factor in this series that can spell success for the Warriors: the Rockets have no answer for Durant.
With two championships in the last three years, the Warriors should be grateful that they have a future first-ballot Hall of Famer manning the small forward position in their quest to advance their legacy.
2016 Finals Loss
Many believed that the Warriors would have been a dynasty without having to recruit the “supposedly” 6-foot-9 forward (he’s probably closer to 7 feet). It certainly seemed that way back in the 2015-16 season when the Bay Area Squad was running roughshod over the entire league culminating in a 73-9 record, the best regular season mark in league annals.
In the playoffs, they were expected to dominate the competition on the way to their second championship in the Steve Kerr era.
But Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, then with the Oklahoma City Thunder, exposed some of the Warriors’ weaknesses in the Western Conference Finals. OKC led the series 3-1 before the Warriors rallied behind Curry and Thompson’s brilliant performances. The Warriors won the series 4-3 and returned to the Finals were the Cleveland Cavaliers awaited for the second straight year.
This time, it was the Warriors’ turn to lead 3-1 with the NBA championship all but a given as no team in league history had ever come back from that deficit in the Finals. But just like the Thunder series with the roles reversed, the Warriors lost the momentum as the Cavs came storming back to win the series 4-3 behind herculean efforts from LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.
Recruiting a Superstar
In the aftermath of the historic collapse, the Warriors brass believed that their dynasty was over before it even started. They were good but, they weren’t good enough to guarantee a series of championships in this decade.
The loss to the Cavs showed the Warriors that they weren’t a sure bet to win the Larry O’Brien trophy — much less get out of the Western Conference as its representative in the Finals on an annual basis. They needed a hand and GM Bob Myers made sure that they could get a superstar like Durant to join the team.
That’s why they ran after Durant as hard as they could. That’s how the Hampton 5 came to be, those players that went to Durant’s Hamptons room to convince him to join the Warriors. These were Curry, Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green. Durant completed the fifth guy when he signed with Golden State.
The Steve Kerr’s System
Durant had his eyes opened to the free-wheeling brand of basketball that was being championed by the Warriors players who more than likely convinced him that they needed him as much as he needed them.
Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated explained what Durant was presented with in the summer of 2016 during his free agency.
“Yet the impact of Kerr’s system has been far more profound than the box score could ever indicate. It had everything to do with the Warriors landing Kevin Durant in free agency during the summer of 2016. The former MVP was widely known to be drawn to Golden State’s egalitarian system, one that was so different from the ball-pounding ways he’d grown accustomed to playing alongside Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City.
Consider the picture that was painted in the season prior to Durant’s decision: The Thunder, who fell to Golden State in seven games during those Western Conference finals, were last in passes per game during the regular season (256.6) and playoffs (220.4). Durant, like the rest of the Warriors, wanted to play a more free-flowing brand of basketball.”
Kevin Durant landing on a 73-9 Warriors team was unfair to the rest of the league. Yet, it was the most logical decision in the former MVP’s mind. More than replacing his Thunder teammates for new ones, he was replacing an old system for a more modern way of playing basketball, one that the Warriors were playing differently from everyone else.
Durant’s Offense and Defense
But come to think of it, it does appear like no matter how good Kerr’s system may be, it can still be exploited by another superstar-laden team. Durant’s presence merely accentuates the value of this system when you have superstars on your roster. As great as the 73-9 Warriors were in 2015-16, they are not as invulnerable as they seem to be.
Durant’s abilities make them vibranium tough, covering for some of their inconsistencies and lack of firepower as Andre Iguodala, David West and Shaun Livingston have aged. He’s not only an offensive force, but a defensive stalwart as well. These past two regular seasons with the Warriors, KD showcased his defensive prowess, averaging 1.6 and 1.8 blocks in consecutive seasons, both career highs for the 11-year veteran.
Curry’s Value
After the Warriors easily disposed of the Cavs 4-1 in last year’s Finals, Kerr expressed Curry’s actual value to Golden State despite the presence of another former MVP on the team’s roster in Durant. The Warriors coach appeared in an episode of the Lowe Post, ESPN’s Zach Lowe’s podcast, where Curry’s value was articulated.
“People took it the wrong way when we had our conversation after the Finals,” Kerr said. “I was talking specifically about two-way players, and Kevin is right there with LeBron and Kawhi [Leonard]. But does that mean he's better than Steph? All that stuff is subjective. Who's better: James Harden or Kawhi? I don't know. But if you're talking about who has the biggest impact on the way people guard us — on the identity of our team — then it's Steph. He's the engine. Everything starts with Steph.”
Kevin Durant is Taking Over the Warriors
While this was true last year and through much of this season, the 2018 playoffs have shown that the Warriors may finally be taking on the identity of a team that revolves around Durant and his multidimensional talents.
Though Curry is an offensive threat from just about anywhere on the court from 20 feet out (though he isn’t averse to driving in the lane) and way beyond, Durant can kill you from the three-point line all the way down to the paint. And he can beat you in numerous ways as well.
Coaches will tell you that Durant is a nightmare to guard. No matter how good a defender is, the most he can really do is make Durant work for his shots and hope he misses because when he gets going, there’s very few offensive forces in the game that can stop the Slim Reaper.
“Kevin is the ultimate luxury,” Kerr said in an interview via Sports Illustrated’s Ben Golliver. “He can get you a bucket as well as anybody on Earth. This is why anybody would want him on their team. A couple of years ago, we’re in the Finals and we couldn’t quite get over the hump. Kevin is the guy that puts you over the hump. I don’t know what you do to guard him. He can get any shot he wants.”
Golliver went so far as to even consider that the Warriors may not even need Curry to win the championship this year. Yes, that’s how good KD has been and I might even be inclined to join him in believing this.
“Although it’s sacrilegious to say, Durant has been so consistently excellent in the postseason that Golden State might not need Curry to win the title. This sentiment, if conveyed at all, has come via whisper. The opposite take—that Curry’s Warriors don’t need Durant—is invariably shouted.
Yes, Curry was there first, and the foundation for this potential dynasty was made in his image. But downplaying Durant’s central role in Golden State’s 25–3 postseason record over the past two years would be inaccurate and disrespectful. To careful observers, he’s erased every question about his value and answered every doubt about his game since arriving in Golden State. He’s climbing to new heights, and he knows it.”
The Warriors nearly swept the San Antonio Spurs in the first round without Curry and they won the first game of the New Orleans Pelicans series Curry-less, too.
Once they reached the conference finals, the Warriors won Game 1 with a mediocre game from the sharp-shooting guard, too. Curry scored a pedestrian 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting including a subpar 1-of-5 from three-point range. Game 2 was even worse as he scored only 16 points on a woeful 7-of-19 field goal shooting and 1-of-8 from beyond the arc.
In fairness to Curry, he contributed in other areas such as rebounding and assists, but those aren’t the reason why he’s on the floor. He doesn’t hang his hat on these areas. Curry is first and foremost a shooter, one that’s feared unlike any other by defenses around the league. The moment his shot is off, his value to the team diminishes. The Warriors need him to be deadly because that’s what makes their offense flow smoothly. It makes them unstoppable.
What these playoffs have shown, however, is that this team may not be Curry’s any longer even though he has never claimed ownership of it in the first place. Durant has slowly but surely taken possession of this team as his own.
How did it happen? It’s likely when Curry was out for stretches during the regular season.
Unlike in recent years, the two-time MVP was injured and out of the lineup a couple of times and in consecutive games. He missed 11 games in December and 16 games from March to April. During those 27 games (and other pockets of games) that he wasn’t on the floor, the Warriors had to adapt to life without Curry.
Based on their playoff performance so far, they learned their lesson well. So well, in fact, that Durant may be more valuable now to the Warriors’ dynasty cause than Curry is.
The 2017-18 Rockets
Houston GM Daryl Morey built this current Rockets team with the goal to beat the Warriors in mind. That’s why he made his own superstar recruitment process by luring Chris Paul away from the Los Angeles Clippers.
The team was created to not only survive a series against the Warriors, but to defeat them. Logic dictates that if you can go toe-to-toe with Golden State, then you have a huge chance to win the championship no matter which team comes out of the East.
Games 1 and 2 versus the Rockets underscored the value of Durant to the dynasty-seeking ballclub. Shooters like Curry and Thompson can sometimes have bad games or even just so-so ones during a series. The Warriors, however, do not have the luxury of either of them having subpar performances when faced with a threat like the Rockets.
Unlike his fellow All-Stars, Durant is not just a shooter. He’s a natural-born scorer who is also a shooter. With his 7-foot-5 wingspan and un-listed 7-foot frame, the man known as the Slim Reaper can get his shot off anytime he wants. He was the lone consistent scorer in both games regardless of the result. These two games show that without the 9-time All-Star, the Rockets are easily the better team. Had Durant not been around, the Warriors could very well be headed home for an early summer vacation in a few days.
Yes, the Warriors’ hopes for a dynasty are still alive. But this time, rather than the team revolving around Curry, the team may have found a new leader to rally around and his name is Kevin Durant.
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