It aint easy being brilliant...

It wasn’t the 24 points that the 3 time defending scoring champion, Kevin Durant scored in the Thunder’s win over the Bulls.

It was the 10 4th quarter points, including the last 6 of the game that Durant scored to ice the victory for the Thunder.

Say what you want about Kevin Durant…

THIS motherfucker has ice water in his veins.

Coach of the Year: Frank Vogel, Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers have been one of the truly great stories in the NBA over the last couple of seasons. And it all starts with the man calling the plays. The Pacers will finish with one of the top 3 spots in the East, and even though Vogel isn’t the best coach in the league (Popovich, Rivers, Thibodeau are all better) it is often the coaches that manage great records despite the presence of any marquee talent that wins these awards. At the very least, Vogel will be a front runner.

6th Man of the Year: Jamal Crawford, Los Angeles Clippers

The Los Angeles Clippers are loaded. Every reserve on this team has seemingly been an extremely important starter at one point in time or another. But it is Jamal Crawford, that will have the biggest impact. Crawford can play both guard spots with equal effectiveness, and coming off of the bench will allow Crawford, who is good enough to start on just about every team in this league, look to score first.

Defensive Player of the Year: LeBron James, Miami Heat

LeBron James, amongst all of his other immense talents, is also the best perimeter defender, and the most versatile defender in all of basketball. James has the speed to guard the guard positions, and the size and strength to guard the 4 and the 5 on pretty much any team. James, who already has 3 MVP’s, a Finals MVP, and an NBA Championship will get the kind of hardware any elite athlete should take pride in earning. Serge Ibaka of the Thunder and Dwight Howard of the Lakers, when healthy, will get plenty of votes, but I believe that this is the season that King James finally gets recognition for the most overlooked part of his game. It’s good to be the king.

MVP: Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder

LeBron James will be most deserving of it, Kevin Durant will win it. And in that ONE sentence, I have already pissed off Thunder fans. KD will win his 4th career scoring title, will average over 30 a night, and the Thunder will be right in the hunt for the top spot in the Western Conference til the very end. Minus the Olympic Gold Medal, Durant could very well be in for the kind of season that LeBron James had in 2011-12.

2011-12 Record: 47-19

Playoffs: Lost in NBA Finals to Miami Heat

Key losses: James Harden

Key additions: Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb

First off, let me just say that I know you Oklahoma City Thunder fans loved your “Fear the Beard” t-shirts, but in Kevin Martin, you got as good of a basketball player as you could have possibly gotten in exchange for a guy that you couldn’t afford to bring back, and didn’t want to return at a discounted rate.

Turning down less money to be the 3rd wheel on one team to get maximum money and be THE man on another team does NOT make James Harden an asshole. It makes him human. And at only 23 years old, I’m sure he believes that he has plenty of time to help turn the Rockets into the kind of perennial contender that the Thunder currently are.

Martin is a career 17 ppg scorer, once averaged 23 a night for a season, and has instantly become the front runner for the same 6th Man of the Year award that James Harden just won last season.

I don’t see why you guys are all strung out anyway.

You STILL have 3 time scoring champion and one of the 2 front runners for MVP in Kevin Durant, you still have Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka could very well win Defensive Player of the Year this season. Now all you need Martin to do is score 14-17 a night.

What’s the big deal?

Kevin Durant is a BEAST. As long as you guys have him, the sky is the limit, and this guy isn’t going anywhere. Durant is going to win his 4th scoring title this season, possibly his first MVP, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are near the top of a list of 5 teams that CAN win the NBA title THIS season. Kevin Durant could have the same season this year that LeBron James had last year.

And you are all DAMN lucky to be around for the show.

Forget about James Harden. If he wants more money to go be the top guy on a 50-60 loss team this season, that is his prerogative.

All you guys can worry about is the guys that are currently on your team.

And what a team it is!

Next stop for the OKC Thunder…the Western Conference Finals.

Prediction: 60-22. 3rd in Western Conference.

For me, this decision came down between the NBA logo, Jerry West, and current Oklahoma City Thunder star, Kevin Durant.

Sure, there have been a few great #2 picks in the history of this game.

Alozo Mourning, Jason Kidd….

And because he IS the logo, and because of his STELLAR NBA career, in which I can already look all the way back on, I should PROBABLY go with Jerry West…..

But I am NOT going to.

I’m going to go with…

Yes, I know that Kevin Durant just wrapped up only his 5th season in the NBA.

I know that Durant is only 23 years old.

But the 2nd pick of the Seattle Supersonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder) in the 2007 NBA draft is now a 3 time defending scoring champion, a former rookie of the year, 2 time All NBA 1st team selection, and 2012 All Star game MVP.

Durant is averaging 26.3 PPG for his career, and in my opinion, when it’s ALL said and done, Durant will be a Top 5 scorer in the history of the NBA, a multiple time league MVP, and have damn near a handful of championship jewelry.

Durant is that damn good.

Russell: “Yo KD! We got 4:49 left in this game. You thought about where you wanna go on vacation?

Kevin: “Beach, I guess….”

Russell: “Can I come?”

Kevin: “Hell no! You probably wont pass me the motherfuckin beach ball, either!”

Ladies, gentleman, boys, girls, and Miami Heat fans….

The Miami Heat are now within 2 wins of putting a small dent in the huge number of titles they predicted they would win at that now infamous and overly extravagant press conference a couple of years ago.

LeBron James had his 3rd consecutive STELLAR NBA Finals game, with 29 points and 14 rebounds. Just think, Heat fans…

Had he averaged these kinds of numbers in LAST season’s NBA Finals against the Mavericks, you would be DEFENDING your NBA Title right now.

Dwyane Wade, even though he is still struggling to consistently find his shot, had his best overall game of the series with 25 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists.

Chris Bosh notched yet another double double with 10 points and 11 rebounds despite shooting an attrocious 3-12 from the floor.

So, naturally, you guys wanna know about the offensive help that the big three recieved in the Heat’s Game 3 victory. Sadly, they didn’t recieve much. Battier knocked in 2 more 3’s in an NBA Finals series that has made him look more like Reggie Miller than the guy who has drilled 1,519 fewer 3’s than Miller in his career. But his 9 total points made him one of 5 Heat players NOT named James, Bosh, or Wade to score. All failed to crack double figures.

The Heat outrebounded the Thunder 45-38, out assisted the Thunder 13-11, out scored them in the paint 46-42, out scored them in fast break points 19-12, and scored more points off of turnovers 15-14.

You would think that all of those victories within the victory would tell you all you need to know. But that is not the case.

The Heat CLEARLY won the game from the free throw line.

As a team, the Heat were a stellar 31-35 from the line, which is an incredible 89%.

The Thunder, a normally unbelievably solid foul shooting team, were only 15-25, for 63%.

Westbrook was better, but remained inefficient.

Durant was efficient as always, but continues to get nowhere near enough shots, and it can be argued that the small portion of time that he missed with fould trouble in the 3rd quarter completely turned the game in the Heat’s favor.

Harden had his 2nd bad game of the series, managing only 9 points in 2-10 shooting. The NBA’s 6th man of the year is now averaging only 12 points per game in the series, and it would be far less than that if not for his 21 point Game 2 that served as his lone good game in the series.

11 assists as a team will NOT get it done. Allowing 35 free throw attempts will NOT get it done. Getting single digit scoring from the NBA’s 6th man of the year will NOT get it done. The Oklahoma Thunder had best find a way to right these 3 wrongs, or their season could be all but over at about 11:30 Eastern time tonight.

It’s extremely easy to look at Russell Westbrook’s stats and say that he had a good game.

27 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists show a player just shy of a triple double.

But for those of us who WATCHED the game, WITHOUT a biased opinion, we saw a point guard who doesn’t realize that it is ACTUALLY his ROLE to get other players on the team involved. We saw a player who dribbled the ball up the court and jacked up long jump shots without so much as looking in the general direction of Kevin Durant. We saw a player who for the SECOND CONSECUTIVE NBA Finals game took more shots than the NBA’s 3 time defending scoring champion. 10-26. Are you satisfied, Thunder fans?

You think Scottie Pippen would’ve EVER gotten away with taking more shots than Michael Jordan?

You think heads would roll if Pau Gasol took more shots than Kobe Bryant??

Russell Westbrook can win a game or a series for you, and he can LOSE a game or series for you.

In Game’s 1 and 2 of the San Antonio series, Russ was jacking up shots left and right, and the Spurs won both. In the next 4 games (ALL Thunder wins) Russ was distributing the ball, getting the role players involved, feeding Durant, and most importantly was NOT eating up the shot clock only to jack up a contested jumper over a player 3 to 5 inches taller than him.

Bottom line: If Westbrook continues to play the way he is playing RIGHT NOW. The Miami Heat are going to win the NBA Championship this year.

LeBron James is clearly on a mission to finally shake off any and EVERYbody who has ever doubted him or his ability to perform in big game clutch situations in this season’s NBA Finals, and that continued tonight.

Bron Bron had 32 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists as he lead a Miami Heat wire to wire victory to tie this series at a game apiece.

For the second consecutive game, Shane Battier had a flashback to his all American, pre lottery pick days as a member of Coach K’s Duke Blue Devils, as he scored 17 points and DRILLED 5 three point field goals.

Chris Bosh was welcomed back to the forefront of competitive NBA playoff basketball tonight, as he kicked in 16 points and MOST importantly, snatched 15 rebounds for a Heat team more than prepared for 3 consecutive games in Miami beginning on Saturday.

Brace yourself for the following sentence, Heat fans….

You COULD, in theory, celebrate an NBA Title on YOUR homecourt in Game 5.

But then again, so could the Oklahoma City Thunder….

But Kevin Durant SHOULD GET MORE SHOTS!!!

Jesus Christ!

I don’t know WHY you Thunder fans defend Russell Westbrook so much…

Kevin Durant is best player + Russell Westbrook is a fucking POINT guard= Westbrook needs to pass the ball to Durant!

Kevin Durant had 36 points on 12-20 shooting, and 8 rebounds to lead the OKC Thunder to a victory in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Bringing the Thunder, and the 23 year old Durant within 3 wins of an NBA Title.

Kevin Durant showed LeBron James that he has his eyes set on a different kind of MVP trophy….

Can’t fault LeBron James.

He played at a level pretty close to what he will have to continue to play at in order for the Miami Heat to have a chance to take this series.

Bron Bron had 30 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals, and proved what I have spent quite a bit of time telling anyone who wants to listen. That Kevin Durant CANNOT guard him. His numbers are NOT what should frustrate you if you are a Miami Heat fan. What should frustrate you is that LeBronj proved he could take Durant to the rack at will and didn’t continue to relentlessly do it until the Thunder made adjustments.

You can’t fault the Heat shooters, either. Not Shane Battier and Mario Chalmers, anyway. They had 17 points and 12 points respectively, and Shane Battier was the Heat’s biggest offensive threat in the 1st half. You even got a nice contributio from Haslem, who played solid enough defense and 11 rebounds. But Mike Miller? 2 points. James Jones? DNP. Norris Cole? DNP.  Joel Anthony? Played 2 fuckin minutes.

So the 35 points scored by players NOT named LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, or Chris Bosh aren’t really that impressive once you dig a little deeper.

The only one of the alleged Big Three that played anywhere close to the elite level that Heat fans have come to expect from him, was LeBron.

Wade had 19 points, but it took him 19 shots to get them. The fact that the Miami Heat managed a measly 4 transition points, CERTAINLY didn’t make things easy for him, either.

Bosh managed only 10 points, and was never a significant part of the Heat offense. Erik Spoelstra is playing it far to close to the hip with him. He has a $100 million contract. If he can play, he needs to start, play more than 35 minutes, and should be expected to put up numbers at least close to what earned him his massively over priced contract.

The Miami Heat were out shot 56% to 42%, out rebounded 43 to 35, out assisted 22 to 20, lost the fast break points battle 24 to 4, and lost the points in the paint battle 56 to 40.

You understand what that means, right, Heat fans? You did NOTHING well enough to win this game.

On that same note, obviously you understand that I’m telling you that the Thunder did absolutely EVERYTHING well enough to win.

Kevin Durant showed basketball fans around the world the skills that have already won him 3 scoring titles by age 23, and let it be known to all just how close that MVP race with LeBron James was closer than you may have thought. He pumped in 36 points, on 12-20 from the field, and was every bit the go to player the Thunder need him to be in order to win the title.

Russell Westbrook, who I am often blasted for being too hard on, was everything the Thunder need him to be. Except of course for that whole taking more shots than Durant thing, which absolutely HAS to stop at some point. But I have no doubt that I will talk about that more later. Westbrook had 24 points, 11 assists, and 8 rebounds, and most importantly, only turned the ball over twice.

I would say that Thunder fans should be a little troubled that James Harden finished his 1st career Finals game with a measly 5 points, but I have watched enough Thunder games the past couple of seasons to know that when the Thunder truely need Harden to put up big offensive numbers, he WILL be there. Hell, even with Harden’s 5 points, the Thunder Big Three STILL outscored the Heat’s Big Three 65 to 59. No worries.

Ibaka, Collison, Sefolosha, Perkins, and Fisher ALL knew their roles and showed the world where it is they have the TRUE advantage over the Heat.

They have role players.

Not players not named Bron, Wade, or Bosh who occasionally have a solid scoring game like the Heat have, but ACTUAL role players. Guys who are NOT out there to fill up the stat sheet. Guys who are rebounding, playing D, blocking shots, diving for lose balls, and most importantly of all, getting back on defense.

If the above does NOT change, the Thunder will walk away with this series. Perhaps sooner than ANYBODY has predicted.

Kevin Durant CANNOT guard LeBron James!

He should just put his head down and take it straight to the rack EVERY time.

The Miami Heat….

The team thought to be the next dynasty after the LeBron James “decision,” and subsequent Chris Bosh signing last offseason.

The Oklahoma City Thunder…

The team predicted almost completely across the board to be the new Western Conference juggernaut befor this season even started.

LeBron vs. Durant…

The NBA’s MVP vs. the 3 time defending scoring champion. In the opinions of MANY the 2 greatest players in the NBA today. At ages 28 and 23 respectively, this could be a new NBA Finals rivalry for YEARS to come. THIS could be the new Magic vs. Bird.

Big 3 vs. Big 3…

Miami’s LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh vs. OKC’s Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. OKC’s big 3 was the highest scoring trio in the league. Miami’s big 3 was the one that was supposed to win not 4, not 5, you know the rest…

Oklahoma City Thunder KEYS to victory:

• Keep the Miami Heat from getting out in transition. NO team in the NBA is better at scoring in transtion than LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. If the Thunder cannot keep them from getting out in transition, this could be a very short series.
• Slow down the pace. Make this a half court game. In the 2nd half of the Spurs series, the Thunder showed just how dominant they can be when Russell Westbrook shares the ball, doesnt’ rush shots, and keeps the role players involved in the offense. That MUST continue.
• Make LeBron James work on defense. LeBron James has fouled out of ONE total game since 2007. Kevin Durant should try his damndest to change that. James is amongst the game’s premier defenders, but many believe Durant to be the games offensive player. The Thunder need to feed him early, and often, and wear James out so much that he is physically incapable of doing to them what he did to the Celtics in Game 6.
• Move the ball. AGAIN, this comes down to Russell Westbrook. The OKC Thunder won every game in which they had more assists than the Spurs, and were undefeated in games in which they had at least 20 assists. Westbrook needs to take 20 or fewer shots, and realize that this IS Kevin Durant’s team.

Miami Heat keys to victory:

• LeBron James HAS to average the same numbers for THIS series that he averaged in the Celtics series. This is simply a MUST. The Miami Heat will get swept if LeBron puts up the numbers he put up in last season’s NBA Finals.
• Make Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook work on defense. LeBron James HAS to take it to Durant’s chest, and get him off of his feet early and often. NO settling for jump shots. He has to use his physical superiority to Durant to wear the scoring champion down on the defensive end, and get him off the floor if at all necessary. I have a feeling Westbrook may spend some time on Wade. If so, Wade has to run the much younger and far more energetic Westbrook ragged. It is no secret that Russ lives for the offensive side of the court. The Heat HAVE to make him work on the defensive side.
• Chris Bosh has to play BIG minutes and HAS to knock down his 15 to 17 foot jump shots. THIS will keep Serge Ibaka, the NBA’s top shot blocker, OUT of the lane. Thus leaving it free for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade to put in serious work in the paint. THIS could very well take Serge Ibaka, a HUGE part of what the Thunder like to do, OUT of this series, if done right.
• The shooters HAVE to make shots. This means that Mike Miller, James Jones, Mario Chalmers, and Shane Battier HAVE to make the Thunder defense pay if they choose to double James or Wade. The Thunder don’t have a player on their roster who can keep James and Wade locked down for an entire game, and if they get a 3 stuck on the score board every time they DO double, they will be stuck playing one on one with two of the game’s premiere one on one players.

PREDICTION TIME:

Miami over Oklahoma City in 7 games.

I feel like this is LeBron James’ time. If he is EVER going to silence his critics, and cement his legacy, NOW is the time. Because as quickly as Oklahoma City are rising, the window on his run and the Heat’s potential dynasty could close before it even as much as cracks.