NBA Finals Heat-Thunder Game 3: LeBron can live with Durant scoring, but only on jumpers
For a group of guys regarded as especially arrogant in a culture of arrogant players, the Heat sure do say a lot of nice things about the Thunder.
LeBron James talked about Kevin Durant at media availability on Saturday, and while James knows the importance of limiting where Durant scores from, he also knows that ultimately the efforts are futile. LeBron's going to score.
LeBron on KD: "He can make any shot the game can offer."
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) June 16, 2012
LeBron on Durant, "You can't stop KD, but you can't let him get easy transition baskets and dunks."
— Jake Winderman (@jakewinderman) June 16, 2012
Of Durant's 22 shots in Game 2, only 7 of them came from inside the paint. He was 4 of 7 from that range, while 4 of 5 from midrange and 4 of 10 from three (including 2 of 2 from the right corner). So James is right on both counts. You can't give him easy buckets, and the reason you can't is that he can hit from anywhere anyway, so you really can't live with easy ones.
The best defense against Durant might honestly be the offense they used in Game 2, taking him into the post and drawing fouls on him. Because really, Durant is such a phenomenal scoring force that it's impossible to actually solve him in any meaningful way.
