Kevin Durant’s Game Changing Block
The New Orleans Hornets and Oklahoma City Thunder were involved in a very good back and forth game and with around 4:00 minutes left, the Hornets were up two points and had the basketball. This is when the Hornets decided to try and run one of their offensive staples, the pick and roll. I’ve looked at the Hornets’ pick and roll a few different times, and what makes it so tough is that Chris Paul is a threat to score on a jumper in addition to his passing ability. This forces defenders to make a decision when it comes to trying to stop it:
Chris Paul dribbles the ball out in the corner waiting for Emeka Okafor to come over from the weak side block to set a screen for Paul. As Okafor clears out, David West walks down his man, Kevin Durant, and fills Okafor’s spot on the weak side block.
Chris Paul comes off of Okafor’s screen, and we see how the Thunder try to defend it. Instead of giving up a jumper on the elbow to Paul, Serge Ibaka shows hard as Russell Westbrook goes over the screen. With this hard show, the Thunder are basically forcing Paul to give up the basketball.
Paul makes a fantastic pass to Okafor, who is now rolling to the basket. It seems that Okafor has a clear path to an easy dunk, but Kevin Durant rotates over and meets Okafor at the rim.
Durant’s rotation is a little on the slow side, which means he is unable to step in and take a charge. However, that isn’t what Durant is trying to do here.
Durant rises up, meets Durant at the rim, and blocks Okafor’s dunk attempt. Here is the play in real time:
When you have a defensive strategy in place, the whole team needs to be on the same page, and this is a fantastic illustration of that. Durant knows that Ibaka and Westbrook are going to show hard as Paul comes off of the screen, and because he knows that, he knows that Okafor is going to be rolling uncovered to the basket. With Durant knowing all of this, he knows his job is to get over and protect the rim, and that is exactly what he does. Knowing what his teammates are doing and where he needs to be allows Durant to put himself in a position that lets his use his athletic ability to get the block.
When the block took place, there were a lot of folks who took to Twitter to complain about no foul being called, but if you look closely, you see that it is the right call:
Durant is going straight up, and makes contact with the basketball. Here is a slow motion replay of the block.
Impressive stuff. It should also be noted that after this block, the Thunder went on a 10-0 run to effectively put the game away. It got the team and the crowd back in to the game, and that momentum was a huge boost to the Thunder.
