Kevin Durant's Brilliance Always Leaves Nets in Awe
The Brooklyn Nets superstar forward Kevin Durant paid homage to his former teammate, Jevon Carter saying when he wakes up on game day mornings, that’s when he knows whether he’ll have a big scoring performance.
Durant ultimately admitted he might not know what the final box score will tell until he sees what the defense gives him but the 12-time NBA All-Star capitalized in his latest showing with his best scoring performance of the young season Monday night.
“I really don’t know. I really don’t know. I had games where I shot incredible in warmups and had the worst shooting night that night. Mainly, if my mind is in the right place coming into the game as far as following the game plan, I felt that’s when I’m going to have a solid game," Durant said postgame. "I’m just trying to stay locked in as far as what we are doing on the defensive side of the ball and try to stay locked in on how the coach wants to play the offense and the game flows naturally for me.”
The Brooklyn Nets superstar forward tallied a season-high 45 points on 19-of-24 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting from 3-Point territory. His 45-point performance included seven boards, five assists, two steals, two blocks, and a team-high six turnovers in 39 minutes of play in the 109-105 win over the Orlando Magic.
“He just keeps doing it," said Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn postgame. "At this stage, and age of his career, to come, the minutes he played, what he did last night, to lead us into a win, is huge. I think it shows the preparation that he puts into his body. I don’t know if, what he feels about the game. He approaches it like, we have to win this game. He led us tonight. Unbelievable effort. Took a lot out of him, but he’ll recharge and be able to do it another day from here.”
The Magic, who were severely depleted against the Nets, still had plenty of length and size out on the floor to make Durant work for his buckets. From 7-foot-2 Bol Bol to 6-foot-10 rising star rookie Paolo Banchero, Orlando attempted their best to try and slow down one of the most prolific scorers the game has ever seen.
Instead, Durant was fundamentally sound and found his solutions to combat the Magic's defensive profiles with his own 6-foot-10 frame.
“They’re long and athletic. I felt like I had to use a lot of my legs and my follow through on a lot of shots tonight, because my fundamentals had to be on point with this team because they can disrupt you any action that you try to try,” said Durant breaking down Orlando’s defense. “They got a lot of hands on the ball when they tried to trap me, and I tried to go over the top against other teams, that pass gets through. But that long athletic team over there, it's tough to get free looks. So I just tried to be fundamentally sound and get to my spots and knock them in.”
Banchero, who went up against Durant for the first time in his NBA career, got the full experience of what it was like defending the two-time NBA champion. After the contest, the Nets superstar signed and gifted his uniform to the reigning No. 1 overall pick.
"That was definitely a great performance. He didn't miss many shots. That was a tough cover man," Banchero said postgame. "I don't got much to say about that. That was amazing but that's what he do. It's Kevin Durant."
Durant is no stranger to high volume scoring performances. Although this was his first 40+ point game of the season, he’s scored at least 30 points the past three games and 11 times overall this season. Despite scoring buckets with ease, the win margin has been pretty split.
His last two 37-point outings against the Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies both were spoiled by defeats. This time around, his season-high wasn't spoiled due to a needed breakout performance by struggling shooter Joe Harris (17 points), other supporting cast scoring, and pairs of timely stops down the stretch.
“Just keep playing within the flow because respectfully, I feel like I'm always on. I feel like I always, even if I’m not making shots that night, I feel like my jumpshot is always sharp," Durant said. "So I just got to see how the game has been played, see how the defense is being played, what my teammates are doing as well. It's a lot to think about out there but it's a fun mental game that I play.”
While the Nets fan base are always left in awe of Durant's high-scoring performances, so are his teammates. It's a common recurrence but a recurrence that never gets old for the ones around the future NBA Hall of Famer on the hardwood. Take it from Kyrie Irving.
"Oh yeah all the time," Irving said. "All the time. I think it's a natural reaction when you're seeing something special occur in front of you. You do your best to still be in engaged but it's hard not to just stare and just watch somebody that special and talented. We know what he's capable of, but when he shows his talent tonight it's definitely an honor to be a part of. Grateful to be his teammate.
“Super efficient, bailing us out a lot of times on possessions. And when he’s got it going like that we don’t want to force him the ball, but we definitely want to let him work. He shot over double teams, he was shooting over 7’3” tonight, you know guys coming over and trying to make it as difficult as possible, and we tried to give him support. I feel like we still could do more as teammates, but he carried us tonight.”
Durant is averaging 29.3 points, 6.6 boards, 5.4 assists, 1.8 blocks, and 0.7 steals in 36.6 minutes per game this season. His 29.3 points rank seventh in the league and he's played the most amount of minutes in the NBA.
