Blake Griffin perfectly summarizes the reason as to why Kevin Durant has been as good as he has been for long as he has been after win over Philly.
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Blake Griffin may have been the talk of the night prior to tip-off due to his ‘McLovin’ custom shoes but once the ball tipped off, it was all Kevin Durant. With several players in COVID protocols for the Brooklyn Nets, the 2014 MVP has been shouldering quite the offensive burden.
Well, ‘burden’ isn’t exactly the right word to use when you have KD dropping 35+ points night in and night out. He’s not just keeping the Nets’ heads above water too as he has them sitting firmly in the number one seed spot out East.
Kevin Durant is neck and neck with Steph Curry, his former Golden State Warriors teammate, in the 2022 NBA MVP race and deservingly so. He’s putting up his usual, otherworldly 29.7 points a game on incredible efficiency (52.3 FG%) and is doing so on some of the most difficult shots you can attempt to take in a basketball game.
Blake Griffin on Kevin Durant after his clutch performance against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Tied at 101 with 3:10 remaining in the game, Kevin Durant took over the game with clutch 3s, pull-up 2s and a crucial assist to Blake Griffin for what could be considered as the dagger three. It was quite the vintage Durant performance, as most are and it’s clear Griffin was in awe of it all.
“He’s the most unaffected (by defenders) basketball player maybe of all time. They’ve got some good defenders on that team [Sixers], and he obviously gets everybody’s best defender every night. He just goes over and shoots it like nobody’s there. It’s demoralizing,” said Griffin.
Kevin Durant being a near 7-footer with guard-like abilities is as much of a cheat code as you can hope for to actually exist in the real world. KD pulling up in defenders’ faces has been a thing for over a decade. He’s done to LeBron James in the NBA Finals. Twice. So, it’s clear he’ll do it Tobias Harris during the regular season.
