The Duggal Greenhouse reached capacity an hour before the scheduled tip off of the Summer is Serious game that pitted Kevin Durant‘s Shirts team against James Harden‘s Skins. With a standing room only crowd on hand all eyes awaited the heavily hyped game to close out a days worth of basketball at Duggal.
Durant and Harden walked onto the court and the crowd instantly roared into frenzy. Both stars took a lap around the court shaking as many excited hands as they could. Each looked ready to lift their team to victory that night.
Meanwhile the players provided some excitement of their own during warm ups. Mainly, 5-10 dunking extraordinaire Issac “Your Highness” White. White threw down tomahawks with ease while eye-level with the rim. And for some extra flair he added in a couple between-the-leg slams during his one-man dunk display.
Nike was definitely on their A-game with the gear each team received. Durant’s Shirts donned navy blue jerseys with white letters and numbers, as well as metallic purple KD IV ID chromes. On the other side Harden’s Skins rocked white jerseys with red letters and numbers and vibrant red 2013 Nike Hyperdunks (which allegedly glow in the dark, however with the lighting at the gym being top-notch I cannot confirm whether they actually do or not).
With the standing room only crowd’s anxiety beginning to explode it was finally time for the night’s marquee game to get underway. However, the first half was unsuccessful in living up to the game’s billing. Fans were treated to more turnovers and bad plays then a Mark Sanchez-led offense. Kirpatrick “The Summit” McCauley got the scoring started with a put-back layup, and besides the game’s first dunk from Antonio “The Headbanger” Hester it was a relatively forgetful 20 minutes of basketball. Both coaches showed their lack of experience as neither called a time out in the first half to try and get their teams in some sort of offensive rhythm.
Harden and his Skin’s team took a 23-21 lead into the half. The Skin’s were lead by Jeremy “Metronome” Jones and Danny “All Good” Brown, who scored seven and six points respectively. Durant’s Shirts team was led by “The Summit,” who tallied in six points, but got a much more collaborative effort as seven players in total scored.
After a word of thanks from both coaches, the refs whistled the start of the second half. Any jitters and sloppiness from the first half were gone as the second half got underway. The two sides traded baskets until “Your Highness” converted a fast-break dunk that got both the Shirts and the fans back into the game. Another steal led to a throwdown by “The Summit.” Then back-to-back buckets from “The Headbanger” and all capped off with another ferocious slam by “The Summit” brought on the first timeout of the game.
The back and forth continued after the timeout and a dunk by Efe “The Distance” Odigie and a sick crossover into an and-1 by “All Good” gave the Skins a 53-50 lead. However, the Shirts didn’t go away and with 31.9 seconds left to play it was all knotted up at 55 apiece. A couple missed shots by the Skins gave the Shirts the ball with 26 seconds left. “Headbanger” caught the ball isolated on the wing and drove strong to the hoop, missing a layup, but he was fouled in the process as only 5.1 seconds remained. By now the whole crowd was into the game and seemingly endless cheers and jeers roared from the crowd. “Headbanger” stepped to the line and calmly sank both free throws. The Skins last possession resulted in them not even getting a shot off before the clock expired. The game ended with Durant getting the 57-55 victory over Harden.
“Headbanger” took home the MVP honors thanks to his game-high 17-point performance and clutch play down the stretch. The Skins were led in scoring by “The Distance” and Will “Roman Candle” Bowser, who chipped in 12 each in a losing effort.
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