He will break your heart, each time. It’s what he does. You can combat and scratch and claw from 20 factors back the Cavaliers did that Tuesday evening. You can sneak the deficit into one digits, with adequate time remaining on the clock to aspiration the Cavs did that, much too. The Cavs ended up outclassed, outmanned, outgunned for 3 ½ quarters.
Yet right here they were.
And it didn’t matter.
Due to the fact Kevin Durant performs for the Brooklyn Nets, and so he was not going to enable the unthinkable to occur on his observe. He wasn’t going to allow for the Cavs to pull off an absurd comeback, wasn’t going to permit his staff to have to endure a just one-and-carried out gauntlet Friday night.
Three occasions, just as the Cavs ended up starting off to get humorous ideas, he crushed them with clutch critical baskets, and he allowed Barclays Centre to roar and his teammates to breathe. He broke the Cavs’ spirit and then he broke their hearts. It’s what he does.
“That’s as advertised,” Nets coach Steve Nash said after the Nets had beaten the Cavs, 115-108, clinching a date with the Celtics in the playoffs Sport 1 between the next-seeded C’s and seventh-seeded Nets will be Sunday.
For most of the night time it was Durant’s functioning mate, Kyrie Irving, who ignited the celebration in Brooklyn. He hit all 11 of his photographs by means of the 3rd quarter. He completed with 34 details and 12 helps, missing just 3 of his 15 photographs.
“They’re superstars,” Nash mentioned. “It’s what top rated players do.”
The Cavs experienced slice the Nets’ direct to 88-82 when Darius Garland created a 10-foot floater with 8:43 still left it was as near as the Cavs had been due to the fact the first quarter, but Durant instantly drained a corner 3 to increase the lead to nine. Later, the Cavs crawling back again to inside of 99-93, Durant hit back again-to-back again 16 footers to grow the Nets’ guide to 103-93.
And that was that.
Durant finished with 25 points and 11 assists. Irving could have taken the fans’ breath away Durant was the a person who restored it when points started off to look a small dicey. It is what he does.
“We realized they would toss a whole lot of distinctive defenses at us, attempt to gradual us down,” Durant explained. “It’s going to just take a ton of effort and hard work for 48 minutes every single match. We’ll see what occurs.”
Overlook all the things that bewitched, bothered and bewildered the Nets this season. There has been a single reason to tune in each individual night time to look at them perform — effectively, at minimum 55 times and nights, anyway, in addition Tuesday night time. Kevin Durant is that purpose.
Practically nothing else has long gone according to prepare through this 3-yr chapter. The Nets were being immediately excused from the bubble in 2020. James Harden pushed his way in this article, arrived and performed nicely, grew disenchanted, pushed his way out, all in the house of 14 months. Irving has been hurt, he’s been unvaccinated and unavailable. The Nets were going to earn 60 game titles this 12 months. They settled on 44, and needed a 12-5 hot streak at the finish to get there.
Via it all, Durant has been wonderful.
Via it all, Durant has been the a person point the Nets can rely on, game soon after video game, evening right after night, crisis following crisis. He was supplied a amateur coach and all he’s performed is assistance make Nash’s occupation simpler for him. He was given a pair of supporting stars in Harden and Irving who had been chronically unreliable and a third, Ben Simmons, who has but to suit up for the Nets — and just retained participating in at an virtually unimaginably superior amount.
By way of it all, Durant has remained, at age 33, at worst the 3rd- or fourth-ideal basketball player on the planet, averaging 29.9/7.4/6.4 and capturing .518/.383/.910.
(A person man’s record, for kicks and giggles: 1. Giannis Antetokounmpo 2. Nikola Jokic 3. Durant 4. Joel Embiid. Though I’d vote Jokic for MVP.)
Durant’s personal choice may well surprise you.
“If I had to pick, I would go Joel Embiid,” Durant mentioned. “He led the league in scoring, double-doubles, his staff won 50 game titles this 12 months. Numbers have been extraordinary. It’s a wonderful calendar year. But you can just near your eyes and just pick any a single of the guys out of the best 6 or 7, and you can have a very good MVP this 12 months. That demonstrates how great our league is appropriate now and how proficient our league is from major to base.”
Amongst those 6 or seven, of study course, is Durant, who constantly has shaken off the several and sundry issues that subvert the Nets’ mission, who simply would make them greater by stepping on the floor and breaking the other team’s coronary heart. It is what he does.
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