2012 NBA Finals: Pros and Cons of Double-Teaming LeBron James and Kevin Durant

When facing a talented scorer, sometimes it may seem like a good idea to throw an extra defender at him, cross your fingers and hope that double-teaming him will be enough to throw him out of rhythm and win the game for your team. 

However, when that scorer is named either LeBron James or Kevin Durant, it's probably not such a good idea. 

While there are benefits for this particular style of defensive pressure, the cons outweigh them and then some. 

Let me explain why. 

Double-Teaming LeBron James

Over the last few games, LeBron James hasn't just resembled any ol' basketball player, he has looked like a real-life version of an NBA 2k12 player who is using every cheat code known to mankind. 

As a result, the Oklahoma City Thunder may be tempted to double up on LeBron and force one of his teammates to beat them. 

Doing so may initially throw LeBron off his game, especially if the second defender is a big man who manages to sneak away from Udonis Haslem or Joel Anthony. In fact, that's the only way that the scenario is beneficial, because doubling off of Dwyane Wade, Mario Chalmers or Chris Bosh is just a disaster waiting to happen. 

The extra defender will help mitigate LeBron's drives to the rim and force him into a few more jump shots. Then it's a crapshoot whether he catches fire or not. 

However, LeBron is such an intelligent basketball player and possesses such exceptional court vision, that he'll be able to pick the Thunder apart in that situation. You're just asking for him to rack up enough assists to record the all-too-glamorous triple-double.

Double-teaming LeBron is essentially asking the rest of the Heat to step up and beat you on offense. LeBron's passing is good enough that he'll ensure there's a positive answer.

Double-Teaming Kevin Durant

Setting an extra defender on Kevin Durant in an attempt to slow down the 23-year-old phenom may initially seem like a good idea as well, it's actually an even worse one. 

Durant's passing skills aren't nearly at the level as James', but they don't need to be because of his teammates' abilities to create their own offense and take over a game.

Putting two defenders on Durant is just about the worst thing you can realistically do when the Thunder are playing small with Russell Westbrook and James Harden on the court as well. All KD has to do is kick the ball to either of them and let them drive into the lane with a reduced-help defense to slow them.

As great a scorer as Durant may be, the team isn't entirely dependent on his offensive output. It's much more important that at least two of the three premier offensive options get rolling.

If you focus all of your energy on stopping Durant, you're ensuring that the other two do exactly that and get in their offensive groove.

Plus, we all know exactly what happens when Durant is double-teamed. There's no one to pass it to, so he pulls up and hits the shot for the win. Unfortunately, you didn't see it because you were stressing about overages on your data plan.