Kiwi Steve in the NBA – April 20
Enes + Steve 4eva!
It’s the NBA’s leading bromance. Steven Adams and Enes Kanter, they could be rivals competing for minutes but instead they’re good buds. What a lovely thing.
There was a video interview by NewsOK the other week featuring the ‘Stache Bros (formerly known as the Bruise Brothers) – the same one that Kevin Durant donned a mo’ for and interrupted them. That thing is up as a podcast on the Thunder Buddies channel and it is well worth a listen for anyone reading this, chock full of classic Kiwi Steve quotes. Plus you get a real idea of the camaraderie there between the two and how close they are. A pair of seven footers, one from New Zealand and one from Turkey, adrift in a foreign land. Very cool.
Here are a couple highlights:
Mitch McGary was officially a member of the ‘Stache Bros but was soon kicked out:
Steve: “Mitch doesn’t count because his moustache was trash”
Did you feel awkward playing with a moustache?
Steve: “No, I didn’t. I felt free.”
What about Stache recognition/feedback?
Enes: “I think it looks pretty cool”
Steve: “You get the compliments from the dudes, who are like ‘rock on’. You know, they’re proud. Coz they don’t wanna do it but they know it’s a manly thing. Women? No, not a chance.”
Steve: “I’ve gotten a couple compliments. They usually give me the nod, bro, you know, the approval.”
On KD’s interruption:
Steve: “You’re not a part of our family! You always take the spotlight! Let us be cool for once!”
Kanter playing against Adams for Utah:
Enes: “So every time I played against Oklahoma city I hated it, coz there was always like… they got him and Perkins, like two big, really big, guys down low and I always hated to play against them because he’d always have tricks so I was like trying to go help and he was pulling my arm and…”
Steve: “You weren’t trying to help, let’s be honest.”
There was also a bloody tops article from Anthony Slater, conductor of said interview above, about the pair. Check that one out here.
Speaking of highlights, voting for Sixth Man of the Year concluded with Enes Kanter coming in third. Jamal Crawford won it, with Andre Iguodala in second. Clearly Kanter didn’t work hard enough:
Box Scores
vs DAL (W 108-70): 23 MINS, 4 PTS (2/4 FG, 0/1 FT), 7 REB, 1 STL, 1 BLK, 2 TO, 2 PF
vs DAL (L 85-84): 30 MINS, 9 PTS (4/6 FG, 1/2 FT), 9 REB, 2 AST, 1 BLK, 0 TO, 2 PF
The Dallas Mavericks it is, after the Trail Blazers won their final regular season game and the Memphis Grizzlies and Mavs each lost on the final day of the season (to the GS Warriors and SA Spurs respectively) – meaning OKC gets to revisit a playoffs matchup that has been at the heart of some pivotal moments in recent history for each of those franchises.
In 2011 the Durant/Westbrook/Harden Thunder announced themselves to the world in beating the Nuggets in round one and then advancing to the Conference Finals thanks to a game seven win over the Grizz. But in a thoroughly entertaining series the Mavericks rode one of Dirk Nowitzki’s finest ever stretches to win in five on their way to an NBA Championship. A year later the Thunder lost to LeBron’s Heat in the Finals but on their way there they swept Dallas in round one. A year later they drafted Steven Adams.
This series was always gonna be a lot closer to the 2012 series than the 2011 one. Hey but first let’s look at a couple Thunder Beats and their pre-series predictions:
Daily Thunder: “Without a rim-protecting power forward, Russell Westbrook will likely run a pick and roll with Steven Adams to get the slow-footed Zaza Pachulia out on the perimeter on skates. To counter this, the Mavericks may choose to run small ball lineups with several of their guards and Nowitzki or David Lee as their “big man”. The Thunder may try to use size to their advantage, but may also have to look at the possibility of matching Dallas’ small ball lineup.”
Thunder Digest: “It’s going to be curious on how Carlisle will defend the Russell Westbrook-anyone PnR. Westbrook has been highly successful with Kanter and Steven Adams as his rolling partner and the tandem of Kevin Durant and Westbrook is virtually unstoppable.”
The Thunder rocked out to a 9-0 start in game one before Deron Williams got Dallas on the board. Even then OKC were red hot and Dallas ice cold. Durant in particular looked sharp, scoring 9 1Q points. Adams wasn’t in on that early scoring, he missed his first FGA and was sitting much earlier than ideal with a couple fouls. The Mavs, to be fair, did get some good looks and they simply missed and although the Thunder settled down midway through the quarter their bench was able to keep up some of the pressure at the end (or at least Enes Kanter was), their clear rebounding advantage on show as they finished the quarter with four consecutive offensive boards – even if they did keep missing shots off ‘em. For the first, Dallas shot 5 of 24 field goals and the Thunder were 11 of 23. 26-11 was the score.
Nothing changed in the second either. Dallas continually bricked while the Thunder rebounded and killed them in transition, completely slayed them. Even Serge Ibaka seemed to have regained his shot, not to mention his top level defence (which was the case with all the Thunder lads, the Mavs didn’t help themselves but OKC were really zoned in).
The Mavs’ 33 points were only slightly above the haul of 31 that Russ/KD had between them. Shockingly Dallas shot 26.2% from the field that half – at least they still have Dirk, who had 14 points on 5 of 10. Aside from him they were 6 of 32. Jeeeezus. Adams only played 7 minutes, with 0 points and 3 rebounds.
Good lad that he is, Steve came in and had a very solid third quarter. He finished a couple chances around the rim while continuing to play some fine defence. Minutes were limited given the scoreline, the fourth quarter was more or less dedicated to the utter depths of the bench, so he didn’t get/need to pad the stats. He’ll play more important roles in the next round as he ends up potentially guarding LaMarcus Aldridge. Zaza Pachulia… not so much of a challenge.
J.J. Barea left injured at half time and OKC then had their highest scoring quarter of the game in the third. It was not a contest, not ever. Fast forward to the end then. 108-70, the Mavericks with their second biggest ever playoffs loss and the Thunder with their second biggest ever playoffs win – and their biggest in OKC. Also, it’s the fewest points that the Thunder have conceded in a postseason game.
WTLC: “Overall, the Mavs shot just 9 of 24 in the paint. That's some impressive interior defense from OKC. Adams was in first half foul trouble, but defended admirably while he was in. And Kanter was really good at stonewalling any post-ups.”
The Thunder were actually kinda average for their standards on offence, but their defence was so clued in, the best defensive game they’ve played all season. Adams is a key defensive force, though this series isn’t the best of him given what Dallas has to offer in return. So after that belter OKC had well and truly laid down the gauntlet.
But Dallas’ coach Rick Carlisle is the master of in-series tweaks. Perhaps only Gregg Popovich is better at that so the Mavs were always going to make some key adjustments. What they did most of all was play a lot tougher, almost to the level of trolling antagonism, and that started even before the game. As far as pesky mind games go, this from Charlie Villanueva and Justin Anderson was fully deliberate and completely hilarious. Check out how even as he pushes Charlie V away he keeps on dancing.
Early in this game, Dirk Nowitzki pulled off a sweet spin move to get himself a layup and give the Mavs their first points of the game. At 2-1, it was also their first lead of the series. Already playing without Chandler Parsons, arguably their best player and certainly a crucial guy on defence with his size (6’5” Wes Matthews guarded 6’11” Kevin Durant), David Lee was still out and J.J. Barea joined him after his injury in game one. Deron Williams was able to play though, despite his sports hernia, and the dude was ice in the first quarter. He drilled three threes to score 11 points in five minutes and kick the Mavericks off to a decent lead. That alone tied DAL’s first quarter total of game one – while the Thunder here were only hitting 1/3 field goals and they’d be trailing 24-20 after the first.
Unlike last game, the Mavs were able to slow it down and play at a sustainable pace for them. It helped that the Thunder were shooting awfully but then Deron Williams couldn’t get back in the game, looking hobbled in a lot of pain in the second before leaving for good. Down to point guards three and four against Russell Westbrook. Russ was having a fine game, racking boards and assists as he does and a one stage his shooting numbers were at 7 of 15, good stuff. Yet at some stage it became clear that something was off about Kevin Durant. At half time the Mavs held a slight 45-43 lead but KD was at 10 points, 4 of 14 FGs.
OKC tied it up in the third and surged ahead on a Russ seven-footer. In easily the lowest scoring quarter of the game, both sides had trouble finishing and for the Thunder that came down to KD. 1/9 he was in the third. The thing is it always felt like he was one make away from getting red hot because, like, this is Kevin Durant here. But it wouldn’t come. At least a few others were picking up the slack. Dion Waiters hit a couple big shots, Westbrook was getting stuff done (albeit increasingly frantically), Serge Ibaka had a play or two as well. And this guy:
The Thunder led into the fourth but Salah Mejri, the big Tunisian, helped spark a quick run to start the final quarter that put Dallas back in front. Shortly after Mejri checked out the Thunder went on an 8-0 run to take the lead – KD with a heavy dunk in all that, hey if the jumper ain’t working, get as close as you can. One guy that deserves heaps of praise is Wes Matthews, who shot the ball poorly but played as good a defensive game as is possible on Durant when he’s giving up six inches in height. Durant can literally shoot over him at any point but with all those misses Wes played superb. Durant ended up missing 26 field goals, tying a Michael Jordan record in the playoffs. Mejri came back in and Matthews scored a couple buckets as Dallas closed once more. Adams returned to the court with his side up 78-75, although two long jumpers from Felton then tied it up.
We’ll say this much, Steven Adams had a fantastic final few minutes. He was out there hustling, winning rebound and defending like a champ. He had four offensive boards in the last five, two were kicked out for missed threes, one he tipped in himself and the fourth… we’ll get to that. With the score at 81-81, Nowitzki, Matthews, Westbrook and Durant all rimmed out shots for the lead. All big time players but none took the chance. It was, in fact, Ray Felton who did that. Driving the Mavs up with a flipper before this tough play from Matthews made it 85-81 with 14 seconds remaining.
Possibly a dirty screen by Steve, though note the dude he knocked down was the dude who got the rebound and layup. Should he have fouled him? Nah, not worth the risk of an and-1. All you can do there is stay with him and hope he misses, which he didn’t. But that was a tough shot, Adams drove him pretty wide. Worth saying those were good looks for KD too, ones he’s buried in other games.
But just as you thought it was all over, Durant swished a treble from the top of the arc. It had to happen eventually. 85-84 and now Ray Felton, unlikely hero, was at the line. Boom, misses one. Crash, misses two. An 84% season FT shooter and now OKC are gunning for the win with seven seconds and no timeouts.
IF YOU’RE READING THIS SPECIFICALLY FOR THE ALMOST-GAME-WINNER, HERE IT IS
That’s what happened. Durant went up for the winner but Justin Anderson got a touch on it (he of secondary dance interruption fame). Westbrook grabbed the rebound but overshot his attempts and Adams banked it in… but too late. Initially they counted it but the replays proved conclusive. Ball still in his hands as the lights flashed and time expired – 0.2 seconds away from a defining moment in his career. The reactions… the reactions were priceless, if heartbreaking.
You know, some would say that you haven’t truly made it in this modern world until you’ve become a meme. Michael Jordan? He’s done it – Mavs bench centre JaVale McGee knows that much, see below. Kevin Durant? Who’s the real MVP, of course he’s a meme. And now Steven Adams joins the party with this devastated reaction shot.
A little bit of late game officiating:
ESPN & Tim MacMahon: “Mavs center Salah Mejri got away with a critical loose-ball foul while boxing out Thunder center Steven Adams with 41.1 seconds remaining in Dallas' Game 2 win, according to the NBA's report of the last two minutes. The report stated that Mejri had his arm over Adams' shoulder, affecting Adams' ability to retrieve the rebound. Mavs guard Raymond Felton got the rebound over Adams and scored the go-ahead basket on the ensuing possession. Adams should have been awarded two free throws with the score tied. The report also states that two incorrect no-calls were made on illegal screens set by Adams and Serge Ibaka on Wesley Matthews in the final minute, but Oklahoma City did not score on that possession.”
NewsOK: “But upon review, Adams’ putback was a split-second too late. The refs waved it off, flipping a narrow 86-85 Game 2 victory into an unlikely 85-84 Thunder defeat. Adams heard the news, grabbed and jokingly shook referee Danny Crawford for ruining his moment then put his head down and walked to the tunnel.”
More NewsOK: “If you're looking for a bright spot in a horrendous loss, look no further than the man who was a split-second from flipping this to a Thunder win. Steven Adams hustled downcourt in the closing moments, positioned himself well and tapped back in what, for about 65 seconds, stood as the greatest moment of his young career. The referees waved it off. But don't even think about what could have been. Remember what led up to it. In the final five minutes, even as his team struggled, Adams was great.”
Check out the link on that one, they go into some detail about how well Adams finished. From his rebounding to defending Dirk Nowitzki – which he did a pleasantly decent job of. No easy task that.
Also, quote of the year candidates right here:
Kiwi Steve on Zaza Pachulia: "Yeah, he's a big boy, mate. See his head? Such a big head. It's awesome. And they mock me for having a big head."
Kiwi Steve on Salah Mejri and their redundant trash talking:
So the series is tied at 1-1 and OKC will have to win one in Dallas now. Judging by the betting lines on game two, that was the biggest playoff upset in 20 years and the Mavs become just the fourth team ever to win game two after losing by 35+ in game one. On the road too. But the thing to remember is that, while Dallas limited the rebounding difference, Oklahoma City owns this series on the boards. They have a much deeper team and far more reliable scoring options. Kevin Durant will not shoot 7 of 33 again, perhaps in his entire career. But after talk of a sweep, at least we’ve got a competitive contest on our hands.
