Rasho_libre wrote:No one said he wasn't a good defender, he's getting close to the level below elite. Doesn't mean he's a better defender than james. Even this season with Lebron coasting on that end the first two months. He's picked it back up to a level Durant can't reach. Kd is still prone to stupid fouls, getting caught off ball, his postup d isn't good there a list of areas he could improve. His man d is more than solid though especially against wings. There more to d than just playing man to man. Lebron is very disciplined on d, off ball he creates havoc when the rest of the heat actually show up there, he's arguably the best man defender on perimters in the league. Miami still throws him at every position. More importantly in games like this and In The playoffs you know his impact will be felt on that end just as much as his offence. It's not a knock on kd but he's not on lebrons level defensively at all.
I know that Lebron at his best is unquestionably the better defender. What I'm saying is that as of right now, based on the whole season, a month of defense isn't enough for me to say Lebron has played better than KD, especially with Durant playing at the level he has offensively. It may even out or even go in Lebron's favor between now and the end of the season, but as of now, I can't say he's played as well as KD with the entire season in mind. And if we're talking about stretches, nobody has touched KD's play at his best, which was his stretch in January.
PaulieWal wrote:I don't know why people keep saying LeBron stat padded in that game. After 3 quarters KD had 26 and LeBron had 25 (I might be off on the exact number but it was a 1 point difference). I am not saying KD wasn't better than LeBron in that game but he didn't thoroughly outplay LeBron like LeBron outplayed him this game. The difference in that game was OKC's shooters got really hot and if I am right the 17 threes they hit that game is a franchise record. You had Fisher and Lamb making shots with defenders in their faces. That doesn't take anything away from KD but it's not like he came out like LeBron did this game. LeBron and KD actually scored neck and neck the entire game but for Miami Wade was sluggish that game and its shooters were nowhere to be found.
KD was undoubtedly playing the best basketball in the first half of the season but the last month or so LeBron is playing like the best again. There is still a considerable difference between the best of KD and the best of LeBron. If LeBron keeps on playing like this for the last 25+ games or so and KD's numbers tails off the MVP race might get real interesting.
KD's cast obviously played better, but OKC won in a blowout. As for Lebron padding his stats in the game, I'm looking at the play by play now KD had outscored Lebron 26-25 as you mentioned through 3 and the lead was 16 points, but KD hit a 3 and a 2 to score the first 5 points of the quarter and stretch the lead to 21 with Lebron trying to answer back on the second basket, but missing. In fact, Miami didn't score for more than 3 minutes in the quarter, and honestly, I'm not sure why Lebron and Durantr emained in the game after the timeout with just under 9 minutes left and OKC up 23. KD didn't score or even really look to score after those first 2 baskets which stretched the lead to 21, and Lebron didn't score until he was fouled with 7:16 left and OKC was up 25. He'd score 7 points total, but all of them were meaningless with the game already over. That's what I'm talking about.
He was just asking for it 
