Wednesday NBA Roundup: Kawhi Leonard's Night Nearly Spoils Kevin Durant's Return
Kawhi Leonard used the San Antonio Spurs' season opener to do two things: make 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 have 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, while the fully healthy trio of Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka led the charge in response.
How much talent, exactly? Well, 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, handing out 10 assists as well. He picked up right where he left off last 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-high 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, his defense was as ruthlessly cruel as ever.
Leonard forced Durant to think 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, 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, steals or blocks is a testament to Leonard's soul-sapping defense.
New 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 poor shooting—Donovan should have applauded Durant for not curling into the fetal position and giving in against Leonard's relentless hounding. Who could have 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 story from this contest, even though his team lost, is that Leonard is giving us a new 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 good enough to take the reins of a title contender, which even Pippen never got a chance to do.
We probably shouldn't get carried away, but it's hard not to be excited about the leaps still ahead for Leonard.
Aaron Gordon Goes Prime Shawn Marion Against Wizards
The 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 (if 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, destination: poster.
It Was a Bad Night to Be a West Contender
OK, sure, we're stretching the limits of the "contender" label to include the Memphis Grizzlies, 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, 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 last 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 second night of a back-to-back set and found no resistance from the typically stout Grizzlies defense. Eight Cavaliers scored at least nine points, led by Kevin Love's 17.
If 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 more and more often.
Rookies Showed Out
No. 3 overall pick Jahlil Okafor arrived as advertised in the Philadelphia 76ers' 112-95 loss to the Boston Celtics, 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 last 50 years, only Allen Iverson and Jerry Stackhouse did better in their first efforts as Sixers, 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, mostly subtle anyway.
His on-court plus-minus was a team-best plus-26, which was hard 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 have a good 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 New 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 Like
Kevin 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-high 28 points) learned to shoot at some point over the summer, 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 selection D'Angelo Russell (four points and two assists), while second-year man Julius Randle looked unstoppable at times in the open floor.
Soon enough, these two franchises won't belong to Kobe and Garnett anymore. Looks like they'll be in good hands, though.
Reports of the Dallas Mavericks' Demise Were Greatly Exaggerated
Yeah...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 awful on defense?
A 111-95 win over the host Phoenix Suns might be a good reason to think about all that a little more carefully.
Dallas held the Suns to 39.1 percent shooting and forced 18 turnovers. On offense, Rick Carlisle's typically effective schemes put eight Mavs in double figures and somehow coaxed a team-high 18 points out of Raymond Felton.
Maybe Dallas isn't done.
Threes Are So Hot Right Now
We'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, Davis had made just three.
Both lost, as C.J. McCollum's 37-point eruption sank Davis' New 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, though. The game's more fun when everybody's firing away, and the space created by behemoths hanging out away from the rim opens things up for tons of drive-and-kick action.
We like that stuff. So keep it up, guys.
