Thunder Nuggets Summary

Best Player in the Series: Ty Lawson. For some reason, people seem to group Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton together because they're both UNC point guards from the last 6 years. Turns out they're definitely not the same. Ty's ability to get to the rim has absolutely translated from college to the NBA, and he clearly helped his team despite facing athletic defenders like Russell Westbrook. Even more impressive, in my opinion, is the stark difference in performance to Felton despite playing a similar amount of minutes. Denver, I think you know who your point guard is now.

Worst Player in the Series: Serge Ibaka. This really hurts me personally, because "Sure I-Blocka" is one of my favorite players in the league. Plays on both ends of the floor, appears to have a good work ethic, good feel for the game (especially on defense), and still has some more production to get out of his substantial potential. No, if anything, I'll say that my man "Sure" was dragged down by...

Jerome James Award: Kendrick Perkins. To his credit, he no longer exudes that "hey, I'm oblivious to the fact that I'm the 5th Beatle on the Celtics, we must be winning because I'm awesome!" vibe. On the flip side, there's a chance that Danny Ainge made a shrewd move in not tying up long term money in Perk. Post-trade, the Celtics' defensive efficiency was virtually unchanged in the regular season (as to why offensive efficiency has gone down for Boston, I'd guess it's because Perk set more illegal screens than any big in the league). People love to talk about how he's changed the dynamic of the Thunder, given them a swagger, a defensive identity, an edge. Apparently, his best contribution for OKC is scowling from the bench, because the ol' plus/minus says he didn't help on the court all that much.