It’s James vs Durant in NBA finals
LOS ANGELES — NBA superstars LeBron James and Kevin Durant have something in common.
During the lockout last summer, James and Durant spent four days together working out in James' hometown of Akron, Ohio. Both players were coming off outstanding individual seasons in which their championship dreams were ended by the Dallas Mavericks. They used that as motivation this season and will face each other when the Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder square off in the NBA Finals starting Tuesday night. "I envisioned it every day we worked out," James said. "I understood what his passion was. I understood what his drive was.
"We pushed each other every single day. That four-day span, we called it hell week. He was a little upset about the series in Dallas, where they got eliminated by Dallas, and I was as well. So we pushed each other each and every day." James, a former scoring champion, won his third Most Valuable Player award this season. Durant, second in MVP voting, won his third straight scoring title.
It is the rst time the MVP and scoring champ are meeting in the Finals since 1997, when Utah's Karl Malone faced Chicago's Michael Jordan.
Thunder coach Scott Brooks tried to downplay the match-up, but that is how the nals will be billed as both stars chase their rst championship.
This is the third chance for James, 27, who is widely considered the NBA's best player and is averaging 30.8 points, 9.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists in the playoffs. He lost in the nals with Cleveland in 2007 and Miami a year ago, when he was criticized for his lack of aggression late in games.
It is the rst chance for Durant, 23, who is averaging 27.8 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists while emerging as one of the game's best clutch players. The focus will be on James and Durant, who may guard each other at times but more often will defend other players to conserve energy.
But both teams have other players who warrant attention as each side boast a "Big Three" of stars who can take over games.
Alongside James are fellow All-Stars Dwyane Wade, who was the 2006 Finals MVP when the Heat won their only title, and Chris Bosh, who recently returned from an abdominal strain and sparked the Heat to a win over Boston in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference nals. "They have some of the best players at their positions in the league," Brooks said. "They are amazing players. They can score without screens, they can score with screens, they can help their teammates score. That's what they do and they do it at a high level." Alongside Durant is All-Star Russell Westbrook, who is averaging nearly 22 points in the post-season, and James Harden, who won the Sixth Man Award this season and is averaging 17.6 points. The trio lifted the Thunder to four straight wins over San Antonio in the Western Conference nals.
The Thunder appear to have an edge with frontcourt defenders Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins and a deeper bench that includes ve-time champion Derek Fisher, formerly of the Los Angeles Lakers. Oklahoma City also have the home-court advantage. "We have to do our best job to stop the ball before it gets in the paint," Ibaka said.
However, the Heat are the better defensive team, have more veterans and believe they can draw on their experience — including last year's nals loss — to get them over the hump this time.
"When you lose in The Finals, it hurts," Wade said. "So you play and you try to get back to this moment again, so you can in a sense redeem yourself." — dpa