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It’s 1-1 in the Western Conference Finals as the Oklahoma City Thunder responded to their Game One loss with more great offense — I’m not sure the phrase “playoff defense” will, at any point, apply to this series — largely in part to James Harden’s beastly fourth quarter performance. Harden drained 10 crucial points in the deciding fourth as the Thunder held off the Mavericks, 106-100.

While Harden was indeed playing the role of closer quite successfully, the highlight of Game Two, however, was when Kevin Durant literally threw the ball down on Brendan Haywood. It wasn’t so much a dunk as it was a “get the **** out of the way” smash, something similar to Blake Griffin’s highly-celebrated throw down on the New York Knicks.

The difference being, Durant’s dunk came during the Conference Finals, making much more important than Griffin’s regular season offering.

After the jump, video and the poster image of Durant’s nasty slam >>

See? This is what happens when the best-shooting 7-footer ever to play in the NBA gets hot from the free throw line. You get a chance to witness perfection. You also get a chance to see a record-setting performance from the charity stripe as Dirk Nowitzki surpassed the previous record of most free throw makes in a playoff game without a miss set by Paul Pierce.

aMore on Dirk’s record-setting night after the jump >>

While the match-up may be unexpected, that won’t stop the Western Conference Finals from starting tonight when Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Dallas Mavericks in their best-of-seven series. Granted, the absence of teams like the LA Lakers and San Antonio Spurs may be shocking to some, but these clearly are the two best teams playing currently for the Western Conference.

Sure, the Lakers might have had Phil, Kobe and Pau, but a lot of good that did while being unceremoniously swept out of the playoffs by the Mavericks.

KD or Dirk after the jump >>

Marvel Comics has a partnership with the NBA and ESPN to produce comic book-style covers and images of the NBA and some of its players and the early returns are pretty keen. Marvel’s work can also be seen on the latest ESPN: The Magazine’s cover, and it, too, is also quite keen. It features Kobe Bryant as Iron Man (he’ll need it this season with his dodgy knee), LeBron James as Captain America (um, OK), and Kevin Durant as Thor.

While the image itself does indeed soar, Durant as Thor is pretty confusing.

Considering his nickname, Durantula, a Spider Man tie-in seems like a no-brainer, but, as /Film explains, these three iconic characters also represent the next three Marvel movies, and with Sony owning the rights to the Spider-Man movie, using Thor is understandable. That being said, throughout Marvel’s history, Thor has been awfully built and defined. Durant? While being perhaps the best scorer in the NBA now, that’s still a “not so much.”

Anyway, after the jump, check out a bigger version of the ESPN cover, as well as ESPN.com’s image from yesterday. After the jump >>

And the rest of us, especially those of us playing basketball, are just living in it. Just ask the other FIBA World Championship contenders, especially Lithuania and Turkey. While Durant was great during the entire tournament, in the final two games for Team USA (the semifinals and the finals), Durant put his team (and his country) on his back and carried them, courtesy of perhaps the sweetest jump shot stroke in the world, to the gold medal.

Essentially, Durant and his silky-smooth shot bombed the opponents out of the tournament — just like we predicted he would (Yeah, yeah, we really went out on limb there).

In the final two games, played back-to-back, Durant scored a combined total of 66 points and 14 rebounds. He also turned the ball over four times, a minuscule amount considering how many touches he had, and how hard opposing teams were trying to guard him. Not only that, but Durant shot the ball at a high percentage, and considering the amount of outside shots he took, it makes his two-game performance all-the-more impressive.

In the final two games, Durant was 24-43 (55%), while shooting 12-26 from behind the 3-point line (5-13 against Lithuania and 7-13 against Turkey). He also broke Carmelo Anthony’s single-game scoring record for Team USA with that 38-point outing against Lithuania in the semifinals.

After the FIBA World’s were said and done, it was plain to see Durant is the best offensive basketball player in the world, and if he stays healthy, his performance in World Championship is just a sign of things to come for the NBA and FIBA. In fact, I’m not sure there’s a player in the world who matches up against Durant defensively.

Kevin Garnett perhaps, but you’d need the “pre-knee injury” KG to be completely successful, but I digress.

Over at BallisLife.com, they made a nifty highlight video of Durant’s “Take Over the World” Tour that gives you a look at his amazing scoring abilities.

Video after the jump >>

The exhibition portion of Team USA’s run-up to the FIBA World Championship ended yesterday, playing their last game against the Greek National Team. Perhaps surprisingly, Team USA rocked Greece to the tune of 87-59. During the game, Fran Fraschilla repeatedly hinted about the Greek not going full strength against the Americans, in order to save something for the real tournament, while not revealing their entire game plan. To further that point, the Greeks sat out two players 6-10 and taller who would be counted on to give Team USA trouble in the paint.

Be that as it may, an almost 30-point win is an almost 30-point win.

Leading the way for the US was Eric Gordon with 18 points (four 3-pointers) and Kevin Durant, who had 15 points, seven rebounds and perhaps the best dunk of Team USA’s exhibition run. Granted, Durant’s one-handed Statue of Liberty dunk came courtesy of a beautifully executed fast break, and Durant’s impressive finish was just an awesome finish to a great all-around play:

While the US still has issue with interior depth, no other team they will meet in the FIBA World’s has perimeter players to match up, especially with a player like Durant. Does this guarantee gold for Team USA? Considering how competitive the Spain game was, a guarantee will not be forthcoming, especially from me; although, if Kevin Love keeps putting up double-doubles (10 and 12 against Greece)…

The quest for World Championship gold begins on Saturday against Croatia.

While the non-baseball honks wait patiently for football to start, there’s something else sporting-wise to look forward to: The FIBA World Championship, which goes from August 28th through September 12th in Turkey. Granted, the FIBA Worlds won’t be as popular or fanatically followed like the soccer World Cup — I kind of miss vuvuzelas — meaningful basketball is always a good thing.

It’s true players like LeBron, Kobe, D-Wade and Chris Paul won’t be participating, and because of that, casual fans will probably overlook FIBA’s tournament, but there’s one very, very good reason to tune in when Team USA tries to win the World Championship for the first time since 2002:

The opportunity to watch Kevin Durant burn the FIBA Worlds to the ground.

Further reading after the jump >>

No, this is not McDonald’s redux’ing their Larry Bird/Michael Jordan HORSE commercial. It’s simply Chris Paul being awesome by displaying one of the nastier “make this if you can” trick shots you’ll see. At least for this week. What we need now is a full-on HORSE competition featuring Paul, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant and the guys from Dude Perfect.

In other news, the NBA is a lot closer than you might expect. Try October 27th.

H/t to BDL for the find.