The flashy stat in OKC may be Kevin Durant’s 27.4 points, behind only Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James among the league leaders, but the better story is that Durant is playing 80 percent of the minutes for a team ranked fourth in the league in defensive efficiency and fifth in points allowed. It’s a limited sample — Durant has been off the court a total of only 154 minutes this season — but the Thunder allow just 99.1 points per 100 possessions when Durant plays compared with 115.4 points per 100 possessions when he doesn’t. Throw in significant jumps, for the second straight year, in Durant’s rebounding and assist rates, and even persistent critics, like yours truly, have to concede he’s a budding MVP candidate.

More to the point, the Thunder’s upgrade on defense (they were 23rd in points allowed last year) should forestall long losing streaks. Factor in a rough early gauntlet that has already included two games apiece against the Lakers and the Magic, and quality wins over Orlando, San Antonio and Utah, and Presti’s rebuilding job, ably abetted by coach Scott Brooks, looks to be a year or two ahead of schedule.

via Suns, Kings likely to see early success even out over season – Britt Robson – SI.com.

Robson chimes in with his latest piece on which of the early upstarts is likely to falter. He doubts the Suns (three-point shooting), Bucks (offense), and Kings (team). But he’s in the Thunder and Rockets’ corners.

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So I think it’s pretty clear from Twitter and the blog and all how much I watch of the league. I watch a lot. Not a Dwyer amount. But a lot. I’ve seen all 30 teams at least six times by now, most way more than that. And I watch the Thunder more than usual. You want to know something bizarre?

I’ve only seen Durant score, like, five field goals. No kidding. It’s just one of those things. I’ll have the game on and someone on Twitter will say something funny, or the dog will need to go outside, or the wife will holler to remind me of item number 8,795 on my to-do list, and then I’ll look up and just hear “Kevin Dur-ANT! Wow!” or some variation thereof. And now and again I’ll rewind it to see it, but usually I just say “Oh, I’ll catch it next time.” Except I don’t. I just keep seeing his pull-up threes that clang or turnovers. So to me, Durant has played like crap this year. Which is, of course, absolutely not true, he’s been sublime.

Contrast this with the fact that I literally go back through play by play to see where and when Jeff Green scored so I can watch every single move. I watched one Thunder 3rd quarter four times just so I could watch where Green was before he scored.

Maybe I should reassess my priorities. But I think it’s really weird that in the course of the game, I’m managing to NOT catch the fourth best scorer in the league.