KD had a great scoring performance in the finals but he kinda got exposed that series, which led to him becoming a better ballhandler and playmaker.
He didn't get exposed that series.
He averaged 30 ppg on 54%
LeBron averaged 28 ppg on 47%
It wasn't as if he could've handled the ball more - Westbrook initiates the offense and Harden the secondary playmaker. If anyone was exposed that series it was Harden - he averaged 18 ppg on 49% shooting in the WCF and backed that up with a pathetic showing in the Finals - 12 ppg on 37% shooting. If he produced like he did against the Spurs, the Thunder would've not only won more games in the Finals but they would've had a realistic chance of beating Miami.
Outside of scoring he was completely invisible. I hate the phrase "empty points" but it really did seem like he was just putting points on the board without impacting the game.
This is nonsense.
He had a couple of piss-poor rebounding performances,
was a liability on defense (they put him on Chalmers to stop the bleeding and Chalmers preceded to have the game of his life 
) couldn't distribute at all, and was invisible in the 4th quarter after the first two games as a result.
You ain't gotta lie to kick it.
Chalmers scored ONE bucket on Durant - which was the result of Westbrook missing his defensive assignment and Durant had to navigate around a few players and sprint to Chalmers' spot on the floor. Chalmers scored most of his points on Westbrook (who tried to double other players too often, wasn't paying attention to where Chalmers was on the court and let him drive into the lane too often), he scored while be guarded by Thabo, Collison, Harden and Fisher too. Make no mistake about it - he only scored ONE field goal against Durant, which again was no fault of his own.
Durant held his own defensively in that series - especially since this was his first deep playoff run, first Finals appearance and he had to guard the best player in the world. As I said above, Harden and Westbrook (more so the latter) took control of the ball and controlled the offense - there wasn't much Durant could do. They had a poor coach, and neither Westbrook or Harden could play off the ball for lengthy periods of time. Durant had about the maximum time of possession that was allowed, due to the fact he had TWO other ball-dominant players on his team. They had to split possessions between the three of them, evenly - in accordance to their roles and skillsets.
The thing that bugs me is, I'm not trying to say that Durant was the better player during their matchups or is the better all-around player, in general. Like you,
@The Dankster,
@IllmaticDelta,
@smitty22 and
@HoopLife seem to think that I am. I'm just giving more context to the lopsided H2H record - LeBron hasn't performed better than him in every single one of those wins. He's had the benefit of being four years older, better/more accomplished/in their prime teammates, better team environment for a large amount of their contests. Again taking nothing away from LeBron - as he did have a greater impact on a large majority of the games (and has proven to be the better all-around player) - but basketball isn't a 1v1 sport, there's many other things that need to be weighed into the equation. As shown below, it's not as if Durant didn't play to the best of his abilities or didn't match LeBron in standard stats (besides assists - which is due to Westbrook controlling the ball most of the time) -
Their H2H record has never been just as simple as 'LeBron outplays Durant every single time' - one should never belittle Durant's performances as if LeBron has just walked all over him every time they play against each other. Because that's been far from the case.
