Kevin Durant sat back, after having unrolled the mic cord and began taking questions after his team blew a once-20 point lead vs the Spurs. “That’s the NBA. With three-point shooting no lead is safe”. “Threes. They (The Spurs) hit a couple of threes.” Sure, that was part of it, and is always part of it. “Make or miss league.” Again, yeah. The whole point of the game is to make more shots than the opponent. The entire strategy of offensive and defensive basketball is to devise ways to make your shot-taking more efficient and plentiful. That is to say, shoot good shots, and get rebounds of your missed ones to create more good shots. Defensively, you want to limit the number (total) of shots (get rebounds, steals, blocks etc) and force bad shots (get them off their spots, challenge every shot, don’t foul).
I understand his point, however. Sometimes shots go in, and no matter your effort you are left with a terrible circumstance. Now, Kevin Durant was good in the game, but not nearly as great as he could have been. Victor Wembanyama, was way off the standard of Peak Kevin Durant, but did some easy, hustle things. He took open shots and made them. That three off the pick-and-roll? That’s a good shot for him. The bucket on the post-turnaround late in the game? That’s another good shot. The easy dip in and put-back? That’s easy money. Oh, yeah and he got that because the Easy Money Sniper (Kevin Durant) didn’t … block out. Make or miss … hustle-or-don’t. That’s also part of the game.
Was Durant fouled by Keldon Johnson? Maybe a little bit. Personally, I appreciate the basketball gods (refs) favoring the player attempting to win the game, vs the one attempting to not lose it. Durant passively handled the ball, and was looking for a foul. He didn’t get one, and stood still, passively hoping Johnson would miss through the power of belief, or something.
One reason old school coaches don’t like standing around and firing up three-pointers is that it is passive. It is an easy way of fake-aggression and taking an easy option. That kind of thing can seep into the rest of your game. Three point shots are good shots, but not every three is a good shot. Sometimes, driving into the teeth of the defense to get a layup is better. Sometimes even missing said layup is better because it changes your attitude and makes you more aggressive defensively.
Putting pressure on a team to mentally calculate your every move is part of making them miss shots. Ever seen a quarterback hurry a throw when he is seeing ghosts? Well that is because he got hit a few times and doesn’t want to get hit again. Sometimes fighting over screens, or challenging passing lanes, or harassing a guy on “simple” actions means they are less likely to make a normally comfortable shot. Make or miss, sure, but it doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
Pop hates blowout wins because the easy nature of the win carries over into the next game. Playing competitive basketball prepares you to play competitively. Play like every possession matters because it won’t be foreign to you when they do matter.
The Spurs made their comeback in part because the Suns didn’t take them very seriously, and the youth of San Antonio is too young to be jaded. They lost a ton of games last year, and well they just keep playing and playing hard. They keep running the sets, and they keep fighting and running the floor. Also, they made their shots and the Suns missed theirs.