HANDLE WITH CARE
Why OKC should be concerned with KD’s turnovers, not his missed shots
Everyone is focused on the number. Twenty-six. That’s how many shots Kevin Durant missed Monday against the Mavs, and yes, it’s a big number. It left the sports world buzzing. Poking fun, too. Durant had the most misses in an NBA playoff game since Michael Jordan in 1997 — talk about trying too hard to be like Mike. Durant fell a couple misses short of Kobe Bryant’s career finale — might be taking that Black Mamba tribute a little too far. On and on it went. But with the Thunder preparing to go to Dallas and trying to reestablish control in this series, Durant doesn’t need to focus on the 26. He needs to focus on the seven. And we’re not talking about the seven shots that he made.
Durant had seven turnovers in Game 2. That’s far too many for any player, but for a non-point guard and one of the best players in the world, that number is frankly unacceptable.
“We’ve gotta take care of the basketball,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “That’s something we’ve struggled and been troubled with all year.”
It’s been a team-wide problem. During the regular season, the Thunder committed 15.5 turnovers a game. That’s third worst in the NBA, tied with Sacramento and better than only Philadelphia and Phoenix.
Not exactly the kind of company you want to keep.
And Durant is one of the biggest culprits. He coughs it up 3.5 times a game, and while Russell Westbrook does it more often (4.3), he also has the ball in his hands a lot more. He’s a point guard, after all.
So are pretty much all the guys who commit 3.5 or more turnovers a game.
But Durant has 21 games this season with at least five turnovers, including a nine- and a 10-turnover game. And he hasn’t gotten better as the season’s gone; he’s averaging 4.3 turnovers since the first of March.
As long as Donovan leaves Cameron Payne on the bench and goes with a point-guard-less unit quarterbacked by Durant, that many turnovers just won’t fly.
“We’ve gotta be able to cut some of those down,” Donovan said. “I think Kevin knows that.”
There was evidence to the contrary Monday night.
Several of Durant’s turnovers were products of aggression gone wrong. An offensive foul when he tried to create some space coming around a screen. Another offensive foul on a charge in transition. A up-and-under move that got the defender off his feet but an attempt to draw contact drew no whistle. A drive that sought contact and a whistle but got only the first.
But a couple were simply careless. A steal of an inbounds pass. A crossover dribble deep in the shot clock that was poked away.
That last turnover led to an easy Devin Harris basket in transition that tied the game with two minutes to go. You could say it was the costliest of the turnovers, but really, when you have offensive rebounders like Enes Kanter and Steven Adams and even Serge Ibaka, any possession without a shot is costly.
The impact is only magnified in the playoffs.
Listen, I know the same can be said of missing 26 shots. It’s much worse in the playoffs. But Durant is going to make shots again. That’s what he does. He’s a shooter. He’s a scorer. He’s going to put the ball in the basket.
Before Monday night, Durant had only five games in the past five seasons in which he had a field-goal percentage under .300. It’s a rarity for him, but even when he does have a horrible shooting performance, it rarely lingers.
In two of the games, Durant had a field-goal percentage that was better but still below .500.
In two others, he shot above .500, including one game with a whopping .733 shooting percentage.
In the fifth game, the Thunder’s season came to an end with a playoff-series closeout, so Durant didn’t play again until the following season.
But the evidence is strong that Durant will be better Thursday. And Saturday. And Monday. And probably just about every game from here on.
“Listen, man, I believe he’s never going to shoot like that again,” Thunder reserve guard Dion Waiters said of Monday’s performance. “It was one of them days. It was one of them nights.”
I asked Durant after practice Tuesday if there was anything he could do to improve his chances of having one of those better-than-.500 games after Monday night’s performance.
“I didn’t come in here after the game and get shots up. I didn’t come in and do all this extra work just because I missed shots,” he said. “I’m just going to stick to my routine and do what I do individually before and after practice and live with (the results).”
It’s a solid plan since it’s worked so superbly to this point. He’s one of the greatest shooters and scorers on the planet, and he’s going to continue to be one of the greatest.
No reason to worry about that.
Now the turnovers are a different story, and to Donovan’s way of thinking, Durant doesn’t have to force the issue quite as much as he did Monday.
“He did a great job fighting for position,” Donovan said. “He caught the ball deep on the baseline, caught it deep inside the 3-point line, and I thought he caught it in good areas of the floor where he could generate and use his size and length to shoot over people.”
Durant, in essence, didn’t have to try to bully his way to the basket. He could’ve just risen up and shot, and make or miss, it’s still better than a possession with no shot attempt.
Durant simply has to take better care of the ball. He has to value possessions more. He has to set a better tone for his team, not only in this series but if the Thunder has any hope of going toe-to-toe with the Spurs or the Warriors.
Let the sports world focus on Durant’s misses. The Thunder will be much better off if Durant focuses on his turnovers.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at (405) 475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.