OKLAHOMA CITY — When Derek Fisher poked the ball away from Mike Conley and it ended up in Kevin Durant’s hands, the Memphis Grizzlies were suddenly in trouble.
The three-time NBA scoring champion raced from under his own basket into the open court, and Tayshaun Prince couldn’t pull out of a full-speed backpedal in time to stop what was coming next.
Durant pulled up and connected on a jumper with 11.1 seconds left for the last of his 35 points, lifting his Oklahoma City Thunder to a 93-91 victory over the Grizzlies on Sunday in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.
“Kevin Durant’s a great player and he got going to make some good shots,” Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. “Talk about whatever you want to talk about, but he made those shots. That last one was a great play. They were down one and he made that shot to put them up one. Not everybody is making that shot at that particular point.”
Instead of calling for a timeout to set up a play, Thunder coach Scott Brooks trusted Durant to make something happen against a disorganized defense.
“I just wanted to get up the floor as quick as possible and find a shot,” said Durant, who finished second in league MVP voting announced Sunday. “That was the only shot I could find and, by the grace of God, it went in.”
Brooks said he might have called a timeout if the ball had ended up in someone else’s hands, even though that would’ve given the league’s stingiest defense a chance to get set. Instead, it went right to the man the Thunder wanted to have it.
“In any situation, he is going to be tough to guard,” Conley said. “But obviously when they didn’t call a timeout, it is tough to guard a guy when you’ve got a team backing up and you are trying to set up a defense. Either way, we were going to have our hands full.”
Thabo Sefolosha kept the Grizzlies from going back ahead, deflecting a pass that Conley was able to corral — but only after diving out of bounds. Reggie Jackson then hit a pair of free throws for a three-point lead, and Quincy Pondexter couldn’t force overtime after getting fouled while attempting a 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds left.
Game 2 is Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.
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