After popping for 17 points and 16 points in the fourth quarters of Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals, Kevin Durant struggled in the final frame of Game 3. The league’s reigning scoring champion missed four of six field-goal attempts and both of his free throws in the fourth, scoring just four points in the last 12 minutes on Sunday night as his Oklahoma City Thunder fell to the Miami Heat, 91-85 , to give Miami a 2-1 lead in this best-of-seven championship series. As the two teams went back to the drawing board on Monday to prepare for Tuesday’s Game 4, an awful lot of talk centered on Durant’s quiet fourth and the degree to which the defense of LeBron James influenced it.
Thunder forward Serge Ibaka, noted shot-blocker and runner-up in this year’s Defensive Player of the Year balloting, thinks the answer is, “Not that much.” Also, he thinks down 1-2 in the Finals is a good time to talk reckless. From Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post :
“LeBron is not a good defender,” Ibaka said about the player who received the most votes for the league’s all-defensive team, which is selected by the coaches.
“He can play defense for two to three minutes but not 48 minutes.” [...]
“LeBron can’t play (Durant) one-on-one,” Ibaka said. “They’re playing good defense like a team.”
Appraised of Ibaka’s comments on Tuesday, James reportedly offered a succinct reply : “I don’t really care what he says. It’s stupid.”
Here, courtesy of Your Man , a less succinct reply:
• Way to go, Serge Ibaka! Trash talking makes everything more fun. Remember how much we liked it when Kevin Durant backed down Dwyane Wade, shot over him, then smiled and told him he was “too small?” (Of course you do. That happened literally two days ago, in Game 3.) Now we will all be like, “Oooh, intrigue!” every time Ibaka and James share the floor, and be able to laugh and smile about how great it is that two young, competitive, combative teams are willing to mix it up for our amusement. Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!
Jun 192012