NEW YORK — On some nights, it’s enough for Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to walk onto an NBA floor. But there are others when the Thunder and their two elite players get pushed to the limit by a team with a losing record like the Knicks, even on a night when Carmelo Anthony is sitting out and the game comes down to a shootout between Durant and one of Anthony’s sidekicks, Arron Afflalo.
That’s what we had when the Thunder left Madison Square Garden with an overtime win and needed all of Durant’s 44 points and Westbrook’s 30 points to seal the deal. Defensively, they don’t look like a team that will give the NBA’s two juggernauts, Golden State and San Antonio, all they can handle when the calendar turns to May and June.
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Yeah, Billy Donovan sure picked a great time to leave Florida and come to the NBA.
“Perfect timing, right?" the guy known as “Billy the Kid” around here said before heading off for Minneapolis for Wednesday’s game against the Timberwolves. “I mean, we’re in the Western Conference, with those two teams having the seasons they’re having, the way they’re playing now?"
It doesn’t mean that the Thunder can’t match up with the Warriors and Spurs when everything is on the line. For one thing, he gets to put Durant and Westbrook on the court every night.
“They both come to work hard, every single day," he said. “And they both try to get better."
But there are major questions about Thunder’s chemistry, Durant’s impending free agency and the supporting cast after Serge Ibaka. Then there’s a critical area where the Warriors and Spurs have it all over Durant and Westbrook. The last two NBA champs actually know what it’s like to hold the Larry O’Brien Trophy, meaning they’ve figured out how to win in June and can summon those lessons when times get tough in the playoffs. Talented as they are, the Thunder’s superstars are still trying to figure it out, and so is Donovan, who won back-to-back titles at Florida, but is in his first NBA rodeo.
Since the Thunder went to their only Finals, in 2012 when James Harden was still on the team and they looked like they’d become the NBA’s next dynasty, the Spurs have been to two Finals, winning one, and have added LaMarcus Aldridge to their championship core. The Warriors have won a title and are steaming, virtually unopposed, toward a new regular-season wins record. In that time the Thunder have reached the Western Conference finals only once, and last year was a total washout ending in a lottery berth when Durant was limited to 27 games by a broken foot.
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So here are the Warriors, with Stephen Curry on his way to running away with his second straight MVP award and Draymond Green taking his game for the first time to an All-NBA level. Then there are the Spurs, with Kawhi Leonard and their old Big Three and Aldridge, even if he did lay a big old egg in his first major test as a Spur out in Oakland. They’ve combined for only 11 losses, taking nearly all of the luster off OKC’s strong 34-13 start that would be good enough for the No. 1 spot in the East.
No wonder nobody is talking about a 2016 title for the Thunder, who didn’t play a lot of defense during their four days in New York, including an ugly loss to the dreadful Brooklyn Nets. The lack of talk about Oklahoma City as potential champs has really bothered Durant, who recently turned it into another fight he shouldn’t be having with media. But after surviving the Knicks, he didn’t look for an argument when the Warriors and Spurs were brought up.
“Those teams are playing extremely well, so you’ve got to give them their props, you’ve got to give them their due," Durant said. “They deserve all the coverage they’re getting. It really doesn’t matter to us where people rate us or have us right now. We’re just trying to get better every single day. We’re just trying to worry about us. No matter if guys talk great about us or talk bad about us, we’ve got to step on the court and play."
Then in May and June, they’ll have their shot to prove that they have what it takes to win.
Slam dunks
• Cleveland’s new coach, Tyronn Lue, needs to have a fully invested LeBron James if he wants to take the Cavs where they need to go. “I’m going to hold LeBron accountable and sometimes he might not like to hear what I tell him," Lue told Sirius XM NBA Radio. As for changes to the Cavs’ offense, Lue has plans to to put Kevin Love closer to the basket and not just have him stationed outside the three-point arc.
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• The Miami media might feel differently, but I tend to take Heat minority owner Raanan Katz at his word when he says that James tried to get Erik Spoelstra fired when he played for the Heat. Remember: James left Miami, in part, because he couldn’t get the control he enjoys in Cleveland as its de facto GM.
• The Clippers always seem to be the kind of the team that has one of its stars breaking a hand while getting into a fight with an equipment manager. You never get that with the Spurs.
• Toronto’s nine-game winning streak is its longest in the Dwane Casey era, and is all the more impressive since it comes without the benefit of having ace defender DeMarre Carroll, out recovering from knee surgery.
• If Sacramento makes the mistake of making DeMarcus Cousins available in a trade, just remember that the Lakers will trade everything not nailed down for a chance to get the most skilled big man in the NBA today.
