The Golden State Warriors are about to defend their title. In the series with the Cleveland Cavaliers it is now 3-0 and that was mainly due to the outstanding Kevin Durant, who replicated his incredible performances from the previous year and almost did the Cavs on his own.
He did it again. As last year, the Warriors went into Game 3 with a 2-0 lead and once again it was Kevin Durant who rocked home the champion’s victory with an incredible performance and a whopping 43 points. And even more: As last year, KD sank the game winner, this time not via LeBron James, but via J.R. Smith, but from farther outside.
The effect was the same, the almost certain death blow for the Cavaliers. As you know, no team has come back from a 0-3 in a playoff series and these Cavs don’t seem to be a historical achievement either, LeBron or not.
It wasn’t the audience, the Cavs fans whipped their team forward in the first minutes and the Warriors seemed quite impressed. A fast deficit of 10 points was the result, also because Durant made two very unnecessary turnovers (step error, loss of the ball in his own half).
The whole Warriors team seemed unfocused, even a time-out of Steve Kerr didn’t help much. Only one performed in a focused manner – and that was the reigning final MVP. Almost single-handedly, Durant kept his colours, especially at the end of the first and second quarters, within striking distance by hitting his jumpers and also pulling fouls. In addition to his 13 points in the first section, all 7 rebounds of the Warriors were added.
The work under the boards is a good indicator of whether Durant is fully involved anyway. His missing outboxing in game 1 against J.R. Smith at the end remained unpunished, but in combination with his weak shooting performance (8/22 FG) this was symptomatic.
This time he took a total of 13 rebounds and was offensively unstoppable. No jumper seemed heavy enough for the Seven Footer and that always means red alert level for the opponent. It sounds easy, but when Durant hits his jumps, no player in the world can stop him. KD scored at least one field goal against eight out of nine Cavs players, but he did not score against Tristan Thompson, but only because this matchup did not take place.
“It was absolutely fantastic what he showed today,” Kerr enthused accordingly. “I think that some of these litters only he can hit.” This sounds a lot like a phrase, but Kerr wasn’t completely wrong. KD sunk four throws from over 9 meters (6/9 from downtown), no team had managed that in the playoffs for 20 years! By the way: Durant has never sunk more than one of them in a game in his entire career.
One could have thought that this could actually be a record for Stephen Curry, but even the specialist for such litters had not yet succeeded in doing this feat. The chef was far from his normal form in this game anyway, which has been the case more often in the Quicken Loans Arena in recent years. It wasn’t until the final phase that Curry met a three-wayer at all, having previously shot nine tickets. This one goal, however, gave the Warriors a 4-point lead shortly before the end and was ennobled by Durant as the most important throw of the game.
Nevertheless: The fact that the Warriors can win a game in the finals with a 3/16 performance by Curry in Cleveland is shown by Durant’s extra class, which even LeBron had to acknowledge without envy. “He’s one of the best players I’ve ever played. One of the best the League has ever seen in its history,” praised James.
That’s what makes it so unfair to play Golden State. Sometimes Curry is hot (game 2), sometimes Durant (game 3). If they are both, the opponent cannot win in principle. “It’s almost like playing against the Patriots,” James said, “so you can’t make mistakes.” But even if the Cavs had played reasonably flawlessly: good offense beats good defense, in Durant’s case the offense was even outstanding.
“It’s a luxury. We have so many players with a lot of points,” Kerr knew, too, while Cavs coach Ty Lue was almost resigned at the PK: “We kept Steph at 11 and Klay at 10 points. You’d think you’d win a game like that.” If it hadn’t been for that KD…
But Durant is no longer just a scoring machine. Houston managed to lure KD into endless isolation. Durant had no assist twice in the series and 19 in three games against the Cavs.
In the second half alone Durant played five direct submissions and was not, as some critics sometimes accuse him of, a ball stopper. The Warriors hit 60 percent out of the field in the second 24 minutes and scored a total of 30 points in the zone – also thanks to some drives from Durant, who then skilfully used his centers and cutters.
But of course the 43 points and especially this ice-cold threesome, which finally broke Cleveland, made the headlines. The fans in the stands froze, only some Dubs fans and the celebrating Warriors players could be heard. And Durant? He looked as if he had just scored 125:93 against the Sacramento Kings in the Regular Season.
Business as usual, no emotion, no hint of emotion – not even when Curry and Draymond Green yelled at him at close range like a couple of hungry young sea lions. “I was pleased,” Durant asserted anyway. “It’s hard to hit a throw in the NBA, but the game wasn’t over at the same time.”
But it was felt, because the Cavs players, who were already there last year, knew this movie only too well. “It was a Deja-Vu when I saw this litter,” confessed Kevin Love. “You know what’s coming, but you can’t stop it, because he can throw his size over any player.”
You know what’s coming, but you can’t stop it. This statement summarizes Kevin Durant, the Warriors and their march to the next title somehow quite well.