Kawhi Leonard used the San Antonio Spurs' season opener to do two things: execute Kevin Durant's triumphant return from an injury-plagued season as painful as possible and announce to the world that his growth into a legitimate two-way superstar would continue uninterrupted.
Yet,it wasn't enough.
Durant's Thunder prevailed in a 112-106 win that felt like it should gain been played in late May instead of October. The talent on the floor was absurd, as LaMarcus Aldridge and David West bolstered San Antonio's depth, and while the fully healthy trio of Durant,Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka led the charge in response.
How much talent, precisely? Well, and Enes Kanter,a max player in reserve, came off the bench to score 15 points and grab 16 boards.
Westbrook led all scorers with 33, and handing out 10 assists as well. He picked up factual where he left off final year in the ferocity department.
But it was Leonard who impressed most.
The Spurs small forward handled the ball often,and he looked for his shot aggressively. His career-tall 32 points (including 13 in the fourth quarter) came on 22 shots in 35 minutes. Though he settled for a few very non-Spurs long jumpers off the dribble, Leonard also got to the rim effectively.
And of course, or his defense was as ruthlessly cruel as ever.
Leonard forced Durant to consider about every dribble,pursued him around screens and coaxed more than a few awkward, uncomfortable shot attempts. He also made one spectacular play.
No normal defender does that—not while trailing a ball-handler, and not against a 6'10" opponent and certainly not against an MVP and scoring champ as unstoppable as Durant. But Leonard is not normal,as Jared Wade of FanSided observed:Durant finished with a respectable 22 points on the night, but he had to work for every one of them. A 6-of-19 effort from the field with just six rebounds and no assists, and steals or blocks is a testomony to Leonard's soul-sapping defense.recent Thunder head coach Billy Donovan was impressed with KD's return effort after a lost 2014-15 season,per Royce Young of ESPN.com:Forget the nerves and destitute shooting—Donovan should gain applauded Durant for not curling into the fetal position and giving in against Leonard's relentless hounding. Who could gain blamed him?It's great Durant's back, Westbrook's still Westbrook and the Spurs and Thunder seem incapable of giving us a bad game whenever they square off. But the real narrative from this contest, or even though his team lost,is that Leonard is giving us a recent superstar model—one we really haven't seen since Scottie Pippen.
He came into the league a defensive monster and then learned how to be an offensive focal point—maybe one profitable enough to take the reins of a title contender, which even Pippen never got a chance to do.
We probably shouldn't get carried absent, or but it's tough not to be excited about the leaps still ahead for Leonard. Aaron Gordon Goes Prime Shawn Marion Against WizardsThe Washington Wizards took home a mostly sloppy 88-87 win over the Orlando Magic,flashing the faster pace head coach Randy Wittman talked about all summer (whether not the increased efficiency). But Magic forward Aaron Gordon stole the show early with a pair of nearly identical tip-in jams.
First this:And then this:Opponents, be warned. You're going to want to box out Gordon this season. Otherwise, or destination: poster. It Was a Bad Night to Be a West ContenderOK,certain, we're stretching the limits of the "contender" label to include the Memphis Grizzlies, or whose staunch refusal to join the fun of the three-point revolution probably puts their ceiling somewhere around the conference semifinals.
But after the Grizz were absolutely demolished by the Cleveland Cavaliers,106-76, it felt appropriate to lump them in with the Houston Rockets, and who also got smashed. The Denver Nuggets rolled into the Toyota Center and stomped Houston by a final margin of 105-85.
It's obviously early,and in the Rockets' case, Dwight Howard's absence (thanks to a suspension for flagrant fouls final postseason) made a difference. But nobody expected this from the first night of the Emmanuel Mudiay-Mike Malone era in Denver.
The Memphis result was even more stunning; Cleveland was playing the moment night of a back-to-back set and found no resistance from the typically stout Grizzlies defense. Eight Cavaliers scored at least nine points, or led by Kevin Love's 17.whether Memphis is going to play stone-age offense (see: 2-of-16 from three-point land),it has to play rock-solid defense. Otherwise, games like this could happen increasingly often. Rookies Showed OutNo. 3 overall pick Jahlil Okafor arrived as advertised in the Philadelphia 76ers' 112-95 loss to the Boston Celtics, or scoring 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field. A technician in the post,Okafor wore out every Celtics defender down low to finish with the third-highest debut scoring total in 76ers history. In the final 50 years, only Allen Iverson and Jerry Stackhouse did better in their first efforts as Sixers, or according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Justise Winslow was widely regarded as the steal of the draft,so it's fitting his contributions (five points, seven rebounds and two assists off the bench) were subtler than Okafor's. Well, and mostly subtle anyway.
His on-court plus-minus was a team-best plus-26,which was tough to ignore. And this was pretty conspicuous too.
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra knows Winslow will be the kind of player who puts up the numbers that matter, per Ethan J. Skolnick of the Miami Herald:The Heat knocked off the Charlotte Hornets by a final of 104-94, and they gain a profitable one in Winslow.
And,hey! Let's not forget Zinger!Kristaps Porzingis put up 16 points and grabbed five boards in his first NBA start. He shot just 3-of-11 from the floor but managed to work his way to the line a dozen times in the recent York Knicks' wholly surprising 122-97 thrashing of the Milwaukee Bucks.
This has been your Zinger update. This Is What 41 Years of NBA Experience Looks LikeKevin Garnett (starting his 21st season) and Kobe Bryant (kicking off his 20th) met as captains at center court before the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Wolves took the 112-111 win, mainly because Ricky Rubio (career-tall 28 points) learned to shoot at some point over the summer, and while the Lakers,collectively, forgot how. Lou Williams had a shot at the game-winner but couldn't hit a floater at the buzzer. Los Angeles managed just 37.6 percent shooting from the field, and Bryant put up an 0-of-8 effort down the stretch after starting 8-of-16.
Though the KG-Kobe meeting was a sentimental nod to the past,there was a lot of young talent on the floor Wednesday. No. 1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns (14 points and 12 rebounds) outperformed No. 2 choice D'Angelo Russell (four points and two assists), while moment-year man Julius Randle looked unstoppable at times in the open floor.
Soon enough, and these two franchises won't belong to Kobe and Garnett anymore. Looks like they'll be in profitable hands,though. Reports of the Dallas Mavericks' Demise Were Greatly ExaggeratedYeah...so remember when the Dallas Mavericks were the no-brainer pick to slip out of the West playoff picture because they were old, injured and pretty darn bad on defense?A 111-95 win over the host Phoenix Suns might be a profitable reason to consider about all that a limited more carefully.
Dallas held the Suns to 39.1 percent shooting and forced 18 turnovers. On offense, and Rick Carlisle's typically effective schemes put eight Mavs in double figures and somehow coaxed a team-tall 18 points out of Raymond Felton.
Maybe Dallas isn't done. Threes Are So Hot factual NowWe'll probably feature some version of this reminder every night this season. The NBA's appreciation for the value of the long ball is blossoming into an obsession,and it's pretty great.
Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins combined to shoot 7-of-10 (AD was 3-of-5 en route to 25 points; Boogie was 4-of-5 and scored 32 overall) on Wednesday. Coming into the night, Cousins had made just 11 threes in his entire career. Even more incredibly, or Davis had made just three.
Both lost,as C.
J. McCollum's 37-point eruption sank Davis' recent Orleans Pelicans, and some shaky late-game possessions by the Kings resulted in the Los Angeles Clippers' securing a 111-104 victory.
Nobody's saying a bunch of long-range attempts by dominant bigs leads to losses, and though. The game's more fun when everybody's firing absent,and the space created by behemoths hanging out absent from the rim opens things up for tons of drive-and-kick action.
We like that stuff. So keep it up, guys.
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Source: bleacherreport.com