Last night’s crumble by the Thunder was worse than when Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. …
….Worse than when the Walls of Jericho tumbled…
….Worse than Cool Hand Luke’s failure to communicate.
You’d think by now last season’s top coaching honoree would have a closing offensive plan. Demonstrably, his team is short one.
With 5:05 remaining, presumably in the game, not regulation, Kevin Durant drilled a 3-pointer to enlarge Oklahoma City’s home crowd advantage to 99-84, prompting a time out call by Dallas coach Rick Carlisle
Led by Nate Robinson, the Thunder’s partying subs came charging onto the court. An ESPN camera focused on the three-time dunk champ bumping bodies with Durant in mid-air.
An ex-head coach watching at home contemptuously muttered, “They’ll be ridiculing that childish celebration all day tomorrow on TV.”
Even so, the coach never imagined the Thunder would completely come asunder. They didn’t score again until the 2:32 mark when Russell Westbrook hit a jumper and never notched another point after that until overtime.
Meanwhile, Thunder coach Scotty Brooks didn’t call a second time out during that frightfully inept and imperceptive span (first occurred at 3:14, Dallas down 99-91) until there were 38 seconds left, OKC up 101-99. That did nothing to decelerate the collective brain drain. Nobody but nobody was witnessed in the act of thinking, not a single, smart offensive play was attempted, much less executed, once the Thunder took the commanding lead. There may have been two commendable defensive checks, but I can only attest to one.
Everyone got into the dumbing-down act after the Thunder grabbed their biggest lead. Instead of properly managing the fleeting time remaining, Westbrook came out of the huddle and uncorked a dry heave from three. Then, within 15 seconds, James Harden twice stopped the clock by fouling Shawn Marion and Dirk Nowitzki, 94 feet from Dallas’ basket.
Let’s try to put that idiotic foul in perspective. Until being given two uncontested shots from 15 feet, Nowitzki had manufactured a fourth quarter total of zero points.
Amazingly, he converted just one of two free throws, his lone miss in 15 attempts all night. Nevertheless, from that point on he nailed four straight jumpers, including a trifecta, and two additional foul shots.
In other words—allow me to do the math– Nowitzki delivered 12 of his 40 points in the final 4:33.
Don’t get me wrong; Pitch White was priceless. Still, it says here, he didn’t win the game (112-105), the Thunder surrendered it. Players can’t perform more thoughtlessly or carelessly, and a coach can’t contribute anything less.
Column contributor Fred Smith is correct by saying the Mavs’ comeback “was the greatest since the earth came back from the eve of destruction, the swallows returned to Capistrano and Loretta got back to where she once belonged.”
ESPN.com, meanwhile, presented before-and-after statistics to trace the Thunder’s disintegration to Harden’s departure due to fouls following his ridiculous reach-around Nowitzki; 25 pick-‘n-rolls before, two after…17 transition points before, zero after.
But the reality is, the Thunder must’ve have been watching too many Knicks games. The above set of circumstances merely masks the Thunder’s real problem: They’re a bunch of boneheads.
Up 99-86 with 4:33 left, Brooks inserted Thabo Sefolosha and kept him in the rest of the way. That allowed the Mavs to cheat off him; not fooled by his four field goals prior to re-admittance. Ahead 101-99, Sefolosha fired and missed a corner three with 20 seconds to go.
Yes, it made sense to bring in a defensive specialist. However, the Thunder needed Eric Maynor’s calming, clever point guard presence more; his assists (three) and caretaking (no mistakes) would’ve done wonders for a team that amassed 26 turnovers.
A perfect segue to Westbrook, who continued to do everything wrong — unsavory shots, quick draws, errors of commission and omission, fouls and, worst of all, a failure to feed Durant in favorable places, as well as demand his return to mid-range. It’s called a lack of leadership.
During Games 2 & 3, ESPN analyst Mark Jackson talked a lot about Durant moving into the same hood as Nowitzki. Posting up nearer the halo is a helluva lot easier than trying to beat two or three Mavericks off the dribble from the top, and when Durant is doubled, it creates effortless chances for teammates.
Brooks relocated the league’s leading scorer for Game 4. And, besides flushing a couple of early springers over Marion and Jason Kidd, he was an accessory to three beautiful baskets.
Unfortunately, Durant was permitted to drift outside further and further following intermission. Who knows why? The Thunder led by five. Maybe eight shots didn’t satisfy Durant. More grippingly, why didn’t Brooks stop his resettlement long before he piled up nine turnovers and three long distance duds to finish the fourth?
The last one was as hideous as labor law allows, especially considering, despite everything, the Thunder’s prospects of winning were still excellent. Tied at 101-101, they had 6.5 seconds, an NBA eternity, to get a responsible look. Brooks had 20 seconds to draw a simple play everyone could follow.
What transpired was a Westbrook hand-off to Durant this side of the International Date Line. Rising up, he flicked from 30-feet and Marion cleanly snuffed it.
I turned off the TV and began writing…and confirming a tip.
Eleven of the previous 12 coaches prior to Brooks being voted best in the profession (2009-10), were out of work in three seasons or fewer.
Gregg Popovich (’02-03) is the prominent exception.
Larry Bird started the jinx in ’97-98 by leaving the sidelines two seasons later on his own volition.
Mike Dunleavy (Portland), Doc Rivers (Orlando), Larry Brown (Detroit) and Rick Carlisle (Detroit) were fired within that time frame.
Hubie Brown (Memphis) left due to health issues. Mike D’Antoni (Phoenix) bolted in a huff to take the Knicks job.
Avery Johnson (Dallas), Sam Mitchell (Toronto), Byron Scott (New Orleans) and Mike Brown (Cleveland) were owed at least a year when they were let go.
I just thought Brooks and Bulls’ Tom Thibodeau, the past two winners, might find that interesting.