![]() While Roberson brings perimeter defense and streaky shooting, Waiters brings shooting and so-so defense. The former Indiana Hoosier would be a significant upgrade from Andre Roberson and/or Dion Waiters. “I don’t see any perimeter player playing any better than him on the defensive end in the league right now.” “He’s a first-team All-Defensive player,” Skiles said of Oladipo last December after the guard single-handedly beat the Portland Trail Blazers with his elite defense down the stretch. But Scott Skiles, Oladipo’s coach in Orlando, knows what his team will be missing next season. ![]() After all, it’s unacceptable for a guard to shoot 34 percent from deep in the modern NBA. To the acute observer, Victor Oladipo has a ton of weaknesses. In the process, Presti did two things: 1) he enhanced Thunder’s chances of retaining Kevin Durant and 2) sowed the seeds for the most explosive, possibly most athletic backcourt in the league. The Oklahoma City Thunder general manager essentially traded an expiring contract for an athletic wing, a serviceable stretch 4 and a promising lottery pick. Sam Presti got away with highway robbery on draft night. He made all three free throws to give him 16 points to go with his 7 assists and 6 rebounds.ĭurant’s first-half numbers underscored his renewed sense of unbridled aggression: 23 points on 6-for-10 shooting, 10 made free throws in as many attempts (or six more attempts than the Warriors), 6 rebounds and 1 turnover.Victor Oladipo and Russell Westbrook will be the starting backcourt for the OKC Thunder and we’re about to witness a rate tandem of explosiveness, athleticism and elite perimeter defense. To cap off the Golden State calamity, Green fouled Westbrook from 30 feet out as Westbrook rose for a jumper with 1.3 seconds left in the half. He then hit a pullup 3 after blocking Green’s layup while the Warriors continued misfiring. Durant made all three free throws and soon after threw down a vicious slam off a Westbrook penetration. The play further ignited the Thunder, who immediately went on a 25-4 run to finish the half, in what looked, from the opposing point of view, hauntingly familiar to what befell the Spurs over the first three quarters here in Game 6 of the conference semifinals.Īfter consecutive baskets by Dion Waiters, Andre Iguodala fouled Durant behind the 3-point line. “You can’t keep kicking people in their private parts,” Westbrook said. Kerr argued that the contact was incidental and later said he thought the league would rescind the call, as opposed to raising it to a level-2 flagrant or possibly issuing a suspension.Īlongisde Durant in the postgame interview room, Westbrook pointed out that Green, a demonstratively emotional player, had kneed Adams in the groin in Game 2. With Sunday night’s all-out assault, they set up a pivotal Game 4 on Tuesday night another home-court victory would put the Warriors on the brink of elimination. But the Thunder appear to be growing as they go. The Warriors faced a two-games-to-one deficit last season in the second round against Memphis and again in the finals against Cleveland. But when a record-setting 73-victory team loses in the way the Golden State Warriors did Sunday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena, it must be asked if the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 133-105 trouncing of the defending champions in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals might psychologically be worth more than one win.Īt the very least, the Warriors know how the San Antonio Spurs felt by the conclusion of their second-round series, sensing that a transformative fulfillment of potential at the season’s most propitious stage has seized hold of the Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook-led Thunder. OKLAHOMA CITY - Blowouts have not been uncommon in these N.B.A.
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