Kevin Durant and Draymond Green were in the headlines for all the wrong reasons a week ago, when their on court altercation began a period of slump for Golden State Warriors.
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Steve Kerr went onto admit that things weren’t quite normal in the locker room and the Warriors’ rosy period in the NBA had actually come to an end.
Furthermore, injury to Curry and then to Durant meant that GSW were short on firepower and hence went on a rare losing spree.
Now, GSW have returned to winning ways in the last two games, beating the Trail Blazers comfortably on Friday and then winning by 1 point against the Kings on Sunday.
However, with Curry and Draymond still on the sidelines, Durant feels that GSW are just not the same.
Durant had a brilliant game against the Kings, scoring 44 points along with 13 rebounds and 7 assists.
And Steve Kerr was all praise for him.
“Phenomenal,” said Kerr
“He’s taking on such a big responsibility along with Klay. You see the shot distribution. Those guys are really carrying the load offensively, and Kevin was just amazing. There were so many possessions that were kind of dead in the water, and he bailed us out late, so Kevin was amazing.” he added.
KD spoke about how it has been really uncomfortable and unsettling playing without their best scorer Curry and their best defender Draymond.
He first went onto praise Curry for how he goes about his business and then explained Green’s defensive play and how he helps the team space out and ultimately function better.
“It’s not comfortable playing without them,” Durant said.
“They bring too much to the table to say that. But we’re just trying to figure out ways to be effective, each one of us on the court, when we’re on the court. I think Coach has been trying to do a good job of mixing and matching the lineups and putting guys in position to be successful individually. And we’re trying to rely on our defense more so than anything when we got — we’re missing 30 points from Steph and any given night.
“You don’t know where it’s going to come from. You got to play more of a cerebral game without one of your best scorers. And then Draymond adds such a … he brings such a unique approach to the game with his defense, switching everything, roaming around. But also the extra passing, and [grabbing] the rebound and pushing the pace. I think more so than anything we just try to rely on defense, and offense we figure it out, but it’s never comfortable without those two.” he concluded.
Durant has also confirmed that he was forgiven Draymond for calling him a ‘b**tch’ during their altercation a week ago, as there is no point holding onto something like that.
“(I forgave him) At that second. I was upset but I know I can’t hold on to something like this…I know I gotta make a choice in myself like how long are you going to be upset about this…to the point that you’re going to let this affect what you do on the floor…” Durant said in an interview.
