They’ve been neck and neck for the 2014 NBA MVP award, and they both showed why last night. LeBron James, despite a few close calls this season, finally recorded his first triple-double in a dominating Heat win in Detroit as the Bad Boys of the late 1980s looked on. And while Kevin Durant didn’t have the all-around performance of ‘Bron, his shooting was so efficient, he only needed 11 shots to score a game-high 29 points against the overmatched Kings.
First, while LeBron only scored 17 points (7-for-13 from the field), he added 10 assists and 10 rebounds for that first triple-double. Five other Heat players got in double-figures including a season-high 17 points from Udonis Haslem, who was starting in place of Greg Oden.
Similar to James Harden the other night, James recorded his first triple-double of the season without shedding his warmups in the fourth quarter during a dominating Heat win.
But while ‘Bron’s first triple-double might have given him an edge over KD on some other night, Durant was on NBA Jam fire, shooting 9-for-11 from the field (3-of-4 from deep) for a game-high 29 points.KD scored 29 points on 11 shots?! Crazy, and just a continuation of Durant’s MVP season. He even found time — during OKC’s 32-15 first quarter that all but ended any chance of competing for Sac-town — for a beautiful give-and-go alley-oop culminating in a Russell Westbrook jam:
Who had the better night: KD or ‘Bron?
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