It was well documented last year during the Thunders’ first round playoff series against the Lakers, that Ron Artest had Kevin Durants’ number on defense. His physical style of defense seemed to bother Durant and completely shake him off his rhythm, causing KD to shoot 35% from the field and 28.6% from three. This season had also featured Durant having his fair share of struggles against Artest shooting 38.6% from the field and an even worse 20% from three in the previous two matchups against the Lakers.
However, things changed on Sunday at Staples. Durant was outstanding, scoring 31 points on 11-15 from the field and 8-8 from the free throw line in what was arguably one of his best games this season and a major reason for this was the Thunder’s use of both on-ball and off- ball screens to free KD and give him space to drive to the basket and draw fouls or take his reliable mid range jumpshot. This was the result of careful game planning by Scott Brooks and the Thunder staff and is encouraging for the Thunder if they are to face the Lakers in the Western conference finals.
Let’s take a look at a few examples:
See a pattern? In all three videos Durant brings the ball up, Perkins or Ibaka screens for him and Artest is out of the play letting Durant get into the paint and shoot that mid range jumper of his. Very nice adjustment by Scott Brooks.
In fact, the Thunder even called a counter play which you can see here:
Overall, Durant scored 12 points on an efficient 5-6 shooting off these on ball screens. It seems that the Thunder have finally found a way for Durant to score against Artest's lockdown defense which is a good sign for the future.
