Ten years ago, in game 5 of the 2012 Western Conference Semifinals, the Thunder killed the Los Angeles Lakers 106-90 at home. Bryant had 42 points, five rebounds and 0 assists. Because the highest score among teammates was the 14 points of his old partner Gasol, the bench scored a total of 5 points.
It was the last playoff game of Kobe Bryant's career.
Opposite Durant 25 points, 10 boards and 4 assists, Westbrook 28 points, 3 boards and 2 assists, Harden 17 points, 8 boards and 4 assists.
They were 24, 24 and 23 years old.
Later, the Thunder pulled four consecutive games behind 0-2, killing the San Antonio Spurs, who had reached the Finals for the next two consecutive years, and rushed to the Finals.
So the remaining 29 teams in the league know:
The west is about to change the sky, and it is impossible to hold down these three little monsters.
However, in the 2022 playoffs, Wei Shao has disappeared, and his joining has allowed the Lakers led by Zhan Mei to win the championship only two years later, and even the playoffs cannot be killed.
Durant faced Tatum and Celtic crowd wolves, ten years younger than himself, played what may have been the worst round of his career series, and left the field.
The only one who is "alive" is Harden. But Embiid was absent, scoring just 36 points in the first two games of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Heat, not enough to produce a game at its peak.
Ten years have passed, how did the "Thunder Three Young", which was once a symbol of youth and vitality, suddenly get old?
First, the rise of thunder - the most incredible "salted fish turning" in history
There are many legendary teams in NBA history who have turned over through the draft, such as the Spurs who won the cornerstone of 20 years, the Cavaliers who selected the "Son of Cleveland", the Bulls who welcomed the flyers and so on.
But like the Thunder, it is like opening and hanging, selecting three future regular season MVPs for three consecutive years, which is the only one in history.
In 2007, the list sign won Durant,
In 2008, the fourth pick selected Wei Shao,
Harden in the third signing of 2009,
Having just moved from Seattle to Oklahoma, renamed the Thunder, they rose rapidly in the West in a terrifying way.
When the three stars gathered, they returned to the playoffs in the first season (2009-10), and the 22-year-old Durant also won the scoring championship in the third year of his career.
In the 10-11 season, the regular season rushed to the third place in the West with 55 wins and 27 losses, but the Western Conference final met the super god Nowitzki, although Dewey could cut 50+, but it could not match the exaggerated 32.8 points and shooting 55.7% of the Nord King.
In the 11-12 season, Durant was already the leading scorer with 28.0 points per game, Young Master Wei was an All-Star with 23.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.5 assists, and Harden won the best sixth with 16.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists. The Thunder finished second in the West with 47 wins and 19 losses.
Durant became the monster who scored three scoring champions in the first five seasons of his fourth career, after Chamberlain, Gervain, and Jordan.
His height of 2.08 meters, long limbs, dead range, and annually evolved offensive skills make him the most terrifying killer in the league.
Wei Shao also changed from a stunned young man who had just entered the alliance to a breakthrough demon. He didn't have the skill of a traditional point guard, but he could wreak havoc with his Transformers-like physique and horse-stepping camp, which was O'Neill, Charles Barkley and LeBron James in the Number One position at the time.
The hardest thing to figure out is Harden, a natural left-handed player who doesn't have lightning speed, but is gifted with a strange rhythm. The way he plays, which is different from most players in the same position, also makes him the most awkward opponent in the defender's heart.
Among them, the 2012 Western Conference Finals against the Spurs is the most classic, and he became the key man for the first time in this series. In front of Ginobili, the equally talented left-hand player, young Harden became the deadly weapon to end the Spurs.
In the series, he averaged 60.9% of his three-point shooting rate of 18.5 points per game, and in the fifth game of the Battle of Tennoyama, he shot 3 of 4 three-pointers, 20 points, 4 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals, showing the world his outstanding skills for the first time.
Although the Finals lost to the more well-rounded "Heat Big Three", no one questioned their Western Conference title as everyone knew:
Sooner or later, this alliance belongs to both of them.
Two or three are divided into families – although full of regrets, they are mutually fulfilling
At the end of the 2011-12 season, the first problem the Thunder management encountered was that Harden's rookie contract expired.
The Thunder had already completed contract extensions with Durant and Westbrook while giving Ibaka a four-year, $50 million contract. For a small market team like them, at that time, it was unable to support four tens of millions of contracts.
So Harden was sent to the Rockets, and the Thunder Three Less also became the king of the explosion double.
The whole league breathed a sigh of relief as Harden was the true organizer of the trio, and when it came time to a crucial round, his Sorted Thunder offense was much more efficient than the one-and-piece Wei Shao.
But at that time, Harden was still just a sixth man with strange and efficient playing style and excellent offensive ability in people's minds, and the black version of Ginobili.
No one expected him to become the most terrifying offensive master in the second decade of the NBA in the 21st century.
2012-13 season 25.9 points 4.9 boards 5.8 assists, All-Star + league three,
2013-14 season 25.4 points 4.7 board 6.1 assist, league first,
2014-15 27.4 points, 5.7 boards, 6.1 assists, league first, Western Conference Finals, regular season mvp second.
2015-16 29.0 points 6.1 boards 7.5 assists.
From the sixth man of a total runner-up team, he became a top star in the league.
After the 2016 offensive master Dantoni coached the Rockets, the "big core with the ball" tailored for him has deeply affected the entire NBA.
2016-17 season, 29.1 points, 11.2 assists, league one-team + assist king,
In the 2017-18 season, with 30.4 points, 5.4 boards and 8.8 assists, MVP and led the Rockets to the best 65 wins and 17 losses in team history.
In the 2018-19 season, he surpassed Bryant with an average of 36.1 points per game and became the most terrifying season scoring machine in the NBA in the 21st century, scoring the king for three consecutive years.
In the second decade of this century, although LeBron, Durant, and Curry have been intertwined, the total scoring champion of the regular season this decade is James Harden (19211 points).
He left the Thunder, giving up the opportunity to replicate the Spurs' "GDP" trio with Durant and Westbrook and achieve a dynasty.
But he became a better version of himself, a facade for a team and even a league, and a big figure who influenced the NBA in this era.
He was no longer the little brother who followed Durant to China to see pandas, but became a real superstar.
The Thunder, who lost Harden, has never returned to the Finals since.
The increasingly mature two of them have become the most terrifying duo in the West and even the whole league, Durant won the 2014 regular season mvp, and Young Master Wei has become the most terrifying hot-blooded violent defender in the league. The Spurs, clippers, and Grizzlies have all been ghosts under their knives.
But the limitations of playing style and bad luck kept them from ever coming back to the top.
In the 2013 playoffs, Young Master Wei was reimbursed for his knee damaged by Beverley, and then the team lost to the tough Grizzlies.
In 2014, Young Master Wei was injured in the middle of the way, and in the playoffs they lost to the Spurs, who were bent on revenge.
In 2015, durant was seriously injured, and this season they did not even touch the playoff gate.
In 2016, he once wanted to eliminate the Warriors, but was evaded by Tang Shen's 11 three-point limit.
Worst of all, after eight years of cooperation, Durant could no longer stand Young Master Wei's self-confident and reckless "one-tendon" style of play.
After becoming a free agent at the end of the 2015-16 season, he chose to join the Golden State Warriors.
There he finally won the championship and finally beat LeBron in the playoffs, but he did not get the ultimate recognition he longed for, and he always had a thorn in his heart.
After entering the NBA, Young Master Wei finally got the absolute core position, and people could finally see that he released all his energy without fear.
No one knew it would be so terrifying.
In the 2016-17 season, he averaged 31.6 points, 10.7 boards and 10.4 assists per game, and a triple-double in 42 games. Not only has it become another average triple-double achiever after "Big O", but it has also broken the magical record of 41 triple-doubles in a single season of Big O.
So the 2016-17 season mvp, Westbrook.
Since then, after five years of separation, the "Thunder Three Less" have become regular season MVPs.
Third, the decline of each - character and fate, how much does it matter?
The three thunderbolts, each of them has profoundly interpreted the phrase "character determines destiny".
Durant is the eldest of the three. The earliest entry, the most delicate mind, the greatest pressure on the shoulders. Since about 2010, he has been constantly compared to LeBron James, who has been second in three of LeBron's four MVP seasons.
His abilities were unquestionable, but his various unlucky and thunderous and direct play styles never made him successful.
So in 2016, he joined the Golden State Warriors who had just eliminated themselves in a way that shocked everyone.
Curry, Klay and the Warriors' unparalleled offensive system, plus Durant, was almost invincible at the time. They used two seasons of 8-1 aggregate scores to avenge LeBron and the Cavaliers, and Durant also won the coveted championship and fmvp trophy.
However, Curry's unshakable signature position in the Warriors, as well as various ironies from the outside world, have gradually imbalanced Durant's mentality. From 2016-2019, we saw his increasingly distorted on-court play and internal relationship with the Warriors, which is by no means caused by Green's "we were champions before you came".
The two sides survived to the 2019 Finals for the common goal of three consecutive championships, but were eventually knocked down by injuries, and Durant ended his time with the Warriors in an almost tragic way.
Then he went to the Nets, joined forces with Irving, who was even more difficult to figure out, and then pulled Harden behind him. However, the three most capable attackers in their respective positions can never operate as a whole.
They had wanted to rely on their talent to crush all the way to the championship, only to lose to injuries and alphabet brothers.
This season, the hidden dangers of hastily forming a team have exploded. Irving's vaccines, Harden's form, and Durant's injuries have kept the Nets in turmoil all year round.
Durant and Irving brought into the playoffs a team of "pompous masters" with a deformed lineup, civil unrest, purely relying on the feel of double stars and watching the sky eat.
4-0, the Celtics, eager for revenge, did not give them a little face, and ripped off the "emperor's new clothes".
How Durant performs, in fact, can not change the fate of the Nets.
Among the three, Young Master Wei's temperament was the most direct and the most difficult to change, just like his style of play, he was as aggressive as fire and invincible.
He couldn't really change for the rest of his life.
When the three young men were on the same team, although Harden's organization was far more reassuring than his, the ball was still in his hands, straight forward according to his will.
When King exploded doubles, even though Durant was already the most efficient scorer in the league, the Thunder's offensive power was still in his hands.
Therefore, during that time, there were always people who joked that "the only one who can prevent Durant is Wei Shao." ”
When he led the team alone, the Thunder had brought him Oladipo, George and Anthony, but whether he was surrounded by newcomers or seniors, Westbrook had to be the only core of the team.
It's not that his personality is overbearing, it's that he doesn't know how to be ballless and accommodating.
He will only play according to his own will, he must have the ball in his hand.
Otherwise he wouldn't be Wei Shao.
Leaving the Thunder, he went to the Rockets to team up with Harden, partnered with Bill at the Wizards, and even finally returned to Los Angeles to team up with LeBron and Thick Brow.
But no matter who the partner is, no matter what his state is, Wei Shao can only play a good ball when the ball is completely at his own disposal. And even if he is willing to give others as an assistant and make a wedding dress, he does not know how to do it well.
He is Wei Shao, the heavenly and the world, the solipsistic Wei Shao. The divine turtle that was invincible and split mount Hua.
None of the other living methods apply to him.
Compared to Westbrook and Durant, Harden is actually the smartest of the three. His sense of the court and the big picture are the top beings of this era, and his research and development of league rules has made him a legendary figure.
But his mind and blood are thousands of miles away from the "god of death" Adu and Wei Shao, who does not know what to fear.
We've lost count of how many times he's seen him inexplicably pull across in a life-and-death battle in the playoffs.
During the Thunder period, as the third brother, he was the super sixth person, belonging to the state of "earning when he played well, and having two big brothers to fight badly", at that time, no one thought that he was the "soft egg of the key ball", but played Mr. Key many times (Bobo's grandfather as a victim did not stand up).
However, when he led the team alone in the Rockets, the overwhelm at key moments became the biggest bottleneck of his career, and he could not break through to this day.
Of course, there are many remedies for softness at the critical moment, such as the team finding a second boss with a big heart (Paul, Anthony), or directly looking for thicker thighs (Durant, Embiid).
But Harden's biggest problem is his professionalism.
In the 2015-16 season, he had just played his career best performance, second only to Curry in the MVP selection, and in the offseason, he actually hitched a ride with the "player killer" Kardashian, so he was completely confused that season.
Since becoming a first-line supergiant, Harden is the league's most famous playboy and nightclub king. Indiscipline in life has little effect when you are young and strong, but in the long run, it is the entire career that is ruined.
So we can see that he is obviously blessed after the age of 30, and his regular season is firm and the playoffs are weak, largely because of the long-term spending of time and drinking, resulting in physical inability to support the entire season.
Especially during the Rockets' transfer in 2021, his figure is so fat that it is unrecognizable. Even if he later transferred to the Nets, he was no longer the Harden master who scored assists like probing for things.
What are the consequences of a chronic lack of self-discipline?
It was his muscle injuries that became more and more frequent,
It is his breakthrough and rhythm that is becoming more and more easily predicted and contained by opponents,
It's his step-back three-pointers that are no longer stable and precise,
Once the league relaxed its defensive moves, it would be difficult for him to complete the breakthrough and kill.
It is now that he has only the physical strength to play a good half in the playoffs.
The harden who used to be, in fact, can't come back.
Interestingly, after the three young men broke up in 2012, they each had two pairs of pairs for a while.
However, neither Adu + Wei Shao (Thunder 2012-16), Wei Shao + Harden (2019-20), or Adu + Harden (2021-22) have no good results.
Maybe the 2012 finals are their real peak.