OKLAHOMA CITY — Play-by-play sheets do not tell stories, do not give context and really do little beyond recording what happened.
So the final line from Game 1 of this Thunder-Mavericks playoff series—:01.5 Durant 15' Jump Shot 99-98 +1—is not really that instructive at all as to what transpired Saturday in Oklahoma City.
Yes, the Thunder won. They won on a last-second Kevin Durant shot.
What we really witnessed, though, was an answer to a question. It was a question on everybody's mind coming into this playoffs about just how good the Thunder really were and how ready (if at all) they were to take that next step to great. "Can they finish?" was the most common phrasing of this doubt.
And 47 minutes and 58.5 seconds into the 2012 playoffs, we have a tentative answer. We have a 15-foot jump shot from Durant that said "Game on" and also delivered a message to the L.A. Lakers and Miami Heat and everybody else who might have figured the Thunder for an easy out. They are growing up. And they are dangerous, the kind of dangerous a team becomes when young talent starts to become tough and willing to do whatever to win.
"It's the playoffs. No matter how it gets done, you have to do it," Durant said. "We are a team that learns from our mistakes."
"Unable to finish" had become a criticism after a young, talented Thunder team had been easily ousted from the Western Conference finals a year ago with Russell Westbrook riding pine and Dirk Nowitzki hitting every big shot and OKC making every big mistake. Such questions followed them into this season, as recently as a couple of weeks ago when, in a loss to Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in L.A., a 17-point lead had been blown and Durant had failed to hit that shot everybody had been waiting for.
And all of this emotional baggage was traveling with them Saturday as the NBA playoffs kicked off. They were playing the defending champs, a team that had eliminated them a year ago, but Dallas is what I call CHINOs—Champions In Name Only. This is not the same team that beat Oklahoma City and shocked LeBron James and Co. a year ago with rings on the line in Miami. And yet the Thunder found themselves trailing with nine seconds remaining to a watered-down Mavericks squad that had been powered by Vince Carter and Delonte West for long stretches.
It looked very much like the Thunder had still not learned to close.
It was with all of this hanging over them that Durant took the inbounds pass from Westbrook. He immediately had Mavs forward Shawn Marion on him. Whatever you think of Marion, or never think of him, or only think of him in past tense as in he used to be The Matrix, the guy can still play some wicked defense. He is a great defender and had Durant defensed perfectly as those final nine seconds evaporated.
Questions also were hanging on Durant, as much if not more than Marion. Would he pull up? Or would he rise to meet the moment and show everybody just how much Oklahoma City had grown?
Hints had been dropped. His jumpers had been failing to fall all game. Yes, he kept shooting yet he also played defense and blocked shots and fed teammates until we were at the moment.
What would he do now?
Durant answered by dribbling right into it, right into the questions, right into the defense and pulling up and knocking down the shot that answered so many questions.
"My job was easy, just get the ball to Kevin," Westbrook joked.
"Luckily," Durant said, "that shot went in."
It was not luck, though, just like there was nothing easy about Westbrook's night. He carried them as Durant struggled with his shot and Durant made the shot he had to have. It is part of the growing-up process every great team has had to go through en route to winning that first championship. It is very reminiscent of the progression Dirk Nowitzki had to go through in Dallas, learning to attack the game in winning time.
It is how good players become great, how banners get hung.
"I am still growing. I am still growing," Durant said when asked where he was in the process. "I know I am going to take my lumps, but it is just a matter of me being confident to just go in there and do it. I've been learning ever since I've been in this league, thrown into the fire. In fourth quarters, my team expects me to make plays and I just try to do it. It takes a lot of misses for me to finally get it. I just got to keep going, keep improving, keep watching film for me to take good shots and make good shots."
And sometimes a shot is just a shot, the play-by-play capturing it perfectly. Sometimes, though, a shot is more. It is an answer, a signal, a warning shot.
I believe that is what we saw Saturday in Oklahoma City.
And Kobe and LeBron and everybody else better take notice because the Thunder are growing up before our eyes, and they are extremely dangerous.
