Ep.34-Durant, Westbrook and Harden vs Kobe (2012 NBA Playoffs: Thunder-Lakers Game 4)
James Harden and Kevin Durant have been reunited in Brooklyn so we looked back at the last time they played together in Oklahoma City.
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With Kevin Durant and James Harden getting back together in Brooklyn, it felt like a good time to revisit their biggest triumph in Oklahoma City with Russell Westbrook: making it to the 2012 NBA Finals. The Thunder went up 3-1 en route to a gentleman's sweep of Kobe Bryant's Lakers. This game also featured Derek Fisher, Kendrick Perkins, Steve Kerr, Craig Sager and Ramon Sessions. Sessions had the best performance of anybody in that group.Â
Show Outline
Study Hall
Season shortened to 66 games due to the lockout after Derek Fisher engineered a not great deal for the players in exchange for a future in coaching (allegedly)
Year 2 of Lebron in Miami after Dallas beat them in the Finals; Heat still get the most media attention
Oklahoma City Thunder
4th year since they were ripped from Seattle by Clay Bennett
Have won 50+ games in each of the past two seasons; made it to the Western Conference Finals before losing to Dallas
Durant has been a superstar for a few years, Russ made his first All-NBA team in 2010-11, James Harden has become a premier sixth man
OKC traded Jeff Green (who is still a useful basketball player) for Kendrick Perkins (who at this point was useless) in 2010-11 season
In 2011-12: Thunder finished 47-19 (a 58-win pace in a normal season), 3rd best record in the NBA, 2 seed in the West
Kevin Durant led the league in scoring with 28 points per game, made All-NBA first team, finished 2nd in MVP voting
Russell Westbrook had his best scoring season to date and made All-NBA second team
James Harden won Sixth Man of the Year
Serge Ibaka made the All-Defensive team
All of them were 22 or 23 years old......
Swept the Dallas Mavericks in the first round
Los Angeles Lakers
The last flames of Kobe's Lakers (even though he played for 4 more years)
Phil Jackson left and Mike Brown took over
Vetoed trade for Chris Paul was right before the season
Traded Lamar Odom to Dallas in offseason; traded Derek Fisher at deadline to Rockets for Jordan Hill (Fisher was released) and traded Jason Kapono and Luke Walton to Cleveland for Ramon Sessions
Kobe was still Kobe at 33; Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum were very solid; Metta World Peace was still very useful; but Ramon Sessions was the team's starting PG
Finished 41-25 (50-win pace); 3rd in the West
Beat Denver in 7 games in first round
Other funny random crap happened this year
Series: OKC blew out LA 119-90 in Game 1, snuck by the Lakers in a gross Game 2 77-75 where Durant hit the go-ahead bucket to cap a comeback, Lakers eeked out Game 3 99-96
The Skinny
Most of this game was kind of a rock fight by modern standards
Scott Brooks made the puzzling decision to use James Harden as the primary defender on Kobe Bryant for much of the game
The Thunder really couldn't get into their offense for much of the game
Kobe was predictably excellent hitting all kinds of typical Kobe shot, Metta World Peace had an excellent shooting game from 3
This game is defined by the Thunder's comeback in the 4th quarter
Time Machine
Two centers playing at all times for both teams
Steve Kerr as an announcer
Quin Synder as an assistant coach for LA
Craig Sager!
Shitty Role Players
What did we learn that is still relevant
James Harden has gotten better at defense (Alex quibbles slightly with this)
Durant has always preferred to be a complimentary piece
Westbrook will do the same things forever with varying degrees of success
What is Kobe's biggest contribution to the game of basketball?
Is it the bullshit foul drawing?