Kevin Durant: What Thunder Star Must Do to Stay Scorching Hot in NBA Finals

The Oklahoma City Thunder is feeling good after their 105-94 win over the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals—but the job is far from finished.

Kevin Durant poured in 36 points (17 in the fourth quarter), in virtually every way imaginable. He allowed Russell Westbrook to take four more shots, moved the ball if he didn’t have an open look and avoided forcing his will on the action. He picked his spots and adjusted to the flow of the game magnificently.

While I wasn’t a huge fan of watching him launch eight threes, he drilled four, so you criticize him there. He also pulled down eight boards and dished four assists for a strong all-around game.

Durant and Westbrook teamed up to outscore the Heat by themselves in the second half (41-40).

So how does he keep this up?

With LeBron James guarding him the vast majority of the time, it’s no secret Durant can’t do a whole lot in the post. With a 20-pound weight difference, Durant needs to keep using his length to stymie LeBron. He is somewhere between 6’10’’ and 6’11’’, with a wingspan well over 7’0’’. LeBron can’t block Durant’s jumper when he releases at its highest point.

Right now, the most automatic shot in the league is the Durant pull-up from the elbow, and nobody in the league can stop it. When he can’t attack the rim and the threes aren’t falling, Durant always has that mid-range pull-up in his back pocket.

That may be the big difference between Durant and LeBron. 

KD has a shot in his arsenal that he has supreme confidence in, a shot that has come through for him time and time again. LeBron doesn’t have anything like that. He attacks in the first half and settles for fall-away jumpers as the game wears on. There is no go-to move he can lean on.

Durant needs to be a bit more assertive with Westbrook when he is taking ill-advised threes with 20 seconds on the shot clock, but other than that, he doesn’t need to change a thing.

Continue to attack in transition and get to the line. Continue to utilize the pull-up jumper when your team really needs a crucial bucket, and fire off no more than six to eight threes to keep the defense honest.

More than anything else, it's Durant’s confidence and his naïve nature that has to keep up.

He has never been labeled anything other than a winner, a terrific guy who can do no wrong. He doesn’t have the demons and 2-9 record in the NBA Finals that LeBron has. He doesn’t have the weight of the world on his shoulders to win a title right now.

23-year-olds aren’t supposed to have three scoring titles and an NBA championship. The brilliance of Durant is that he keeps raising his own bar. He has made the NBA Finals, and the masses are satisfied. Whatever he does from here is gravy.

Every basketball fan in the world is interested in what LeBron does in the fourth quarter. With stats like this from ESPN’s Marc Stein, there is good reason:

"

Courtesy of ESPN Stats & Info: Durant scored 17 in Game 1's fourth quarter; LeBron had 18 points total in fourth quarters in 2011 Finals

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 13, 2012"

The Thunder has now won five games in a row and is gaining more confidence with each triumph. As long as Durant continues to lead the team and be a maestro in his shot selection, the young and naïve Thunder is going to keep winning.

A team with nothing to lose and a super-star player that is too young to understand the moment is quite possibly the most dangerous combination you could have against a team with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

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