Old Fashioned Heart and Hustle

As if the theatrics behind the veil of Heat vs. Bulls wasn’t enough, the excitement looming over this year’s Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks is seemingly enough to spark ample intrigue.

At the surface, the outcome of Tuesday’s game 1 didn’t indicate anything more compelling than a convincing 121-112 Dallas win, and a 48-point, 24 free-throw performance of flawless efficiency by Dirk Nowitzki. It was enough to entrance someone at first, but then slowly steered into what I call “Peyton Manning boredom.” Nowitzki was so good that he made the casual viewer think, “Okay, he’s getting these points a little too easy. Twelve for fifteen? Twenty-four straight free throws without a miss? Let’s watch something else.”

But what game 1 did provide was a sample of the heart and hustle this series will ultimately display. Not one game will feature a second half lay-down reminiscent of what the Lakers put forth in game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals. Both teams are too talented; too consumed by the positions of aspiration they’ve found themselves in. Dallas and Oklahoma City differ in many ways – in both the talents they exhibit and schemes they utilize – but both are vying to reach the same goal by using equivalent frames of mind.

Hustle can’t be mentioned without mentioning one guy: Jose Juan Barea. As recently as November, Barea looked like a random firecracker on the court, bursting every which way without any real accomplishment. Now, he’s a vital cog in the Dallas rotation, leaving no downtime for opponents once Dirk Nowitzki takes his breather and the benches come into play. He hasn’t been noticeably productive (averaging 9 points and 3.5 assists this postseason), but his presence alone has aided the Mavericks in maintaining the furious ball movement they thrive on. Moreover, his defensive liability is less of an issue when he scores over 20 points a game, as he did in game 4 versus the Lakers (22), and game 1 against the Thunder (21) Tuesday night.

Shawn Marion and Jason Terry both fall into Dallas’ hustle category, but Terry may be the only player that falls into the heart class as well. We’ll get to that later. Terry has been a frightening force from beyond the arc, shooting a gaudy 50% from three this postseason and 52% from the field. In modest terms, he’s a very dangerous player. His playoff-tying record of nine three-pointers in a game is enough to scare opposing fans just as much as Dirk Nowitzki can.

Marion is playing well as a filler guy as well, connecting on second chance opportunities and supporting the transition offense. He’s almost as important as Serge Ibaka is to the hustle of the Thunder, who did a good job of attempting (“attempting” being the key word here) to contain Nowitzki in Tuesday’s game 1. His athleticism in the frontcourt, rebounding ability, and continuous motor fit in seamlessly with the overall team approach. It’s just uncertain if he’s completely ready for a championship push this season. All we know is that he’ll eventually get there.

The other uncertainties lie within the true X-factors of the Oklahoma City Thunder. “X-factor” is a word that gets used so painfully often that Sportscenter analysts are starting to exclaim: “I know this isn’t going to surprise anyone, but I’m gonna say it’s Derrick Rose,” and “I know he’s the team’s best player, but I think Kevin Durant is this game’s X-factor.” Maybe we’ll have to go back and redefine the term again, but I remember the tag simply being “Any guy who’s not considered the team's best player who has the ability to swing the game in either direction based on his performance.” For the Thunder, it’s both James Harden and Russell Westbrook.

For whatever reason, Chris Bosh, Pau Gasol and Harden all attain a strange syndrome that doesn’t completely make sense. As soon as the ball is tipped and one of these players starts working within the offense, you know whether or not his head is in the game. The problem is, the condition is very unpredictable, and can sometimes be very detrimental to a team’s health. Neither of these players have been able to shake it yet. Harden is the only one who’s shown promise. Throughout the regular season, it seemed as though the disease had taken over his entire body. He got open for a plethora of spot-up threes, but was a very inconsistent connector. Now, he’s gone back to his college roots and is displaying aggressiveness both in transition and most admirably in the halfcourt game. He’s used that hustle to generate the necessary confidence to hit Jason Terry-like threes. He’s scored double-digits in six of the Thunder’s eight wins this postseason. If that’s not an X-Factor, I don’t know what is.

The other Oklahoma City X-factor is Russell Westbrook. And he does count as an X-factor because he’s not the best player on his team, although he acts like he is at times. Now, “acting” like he’s the alpha dog and “thinking” he’s the alpha dog are two completely different things. We just don’t know which one accurately describes his state of mind. The biggest problem with Westbrook is that he’s only 22 years old. He’s still trying to figure himself out as an NBA player and so happens to be the starting point guard for a team concurrently contending for a title. If he were on the Cavaliers, he’d have no problem figuring out that he’s the team’s number one guy. Building the foundation of a championship team crucially depends on every player on that team knowing his role.

It’s easy to say that Kevin Durant is Oklahoma City’s alpha dog. But Westbrook is not only stuck between positions in this game of role play, but stuck between positions of heart and hustle. He shows copious passion when on the court, but it’s a product of great ambition.

Kevin Durant is beyond his years. He’s past the point of ambition and at a place where he’s nearly close enough to reach out and grasp success. He doesn’t have anything else to prove on the court, while Westbrook’s ambitions say otherwise. That’s the difference between heart and hustle.

Heart is used a lot to describe people with high ambition. But what’s left when you’ve proven all you can do and aspiration fades? True heart is all that’s left when hustle has been tapped out.

That’s why every one of Kevin Durant’s 40 points in game 1 of the Western Conference Finals were believable comeback points. It’s why Dirk Nowitzki has been the best player in this year’s playoffs so far and people started asking, “Does he receive enough credit for how great he really is?” It’s why Jason Terry is so dangerous at this point in his career, balancing attributes of heart and hustle as the Mavericks’ second banana. Jason Kidd is so far past hustle that he has just enough heart left to guide his team as the floor general.

Both the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder display these attributes of heart and hustle; the team that balances them most successfully will make an appearance in this year’s Finals. But this is for certain: Aside from the match-up problems that will keep Kevin Durant and Dirk Nowitzki at the top of the box score in each game this series, both will unequivocally lead their teams by the basis of what makes them two of the league’s best players. It’s what makes Nowitzki a top-25 all-time player (with the potential for something more if championships come into play). It’s what makes Durant the best scorer we’ve ever seen at the age of 22 (and possibly a future Hall-of-Famer, barring injury). And it’s what assembles a championship-caliber team around both of them.

Heart.