Kevin Durant Teased Draymond Green About Dropping 54 Points On Him Once


Kevin Durant put on yet another virtuoso performance on Sunday night, putting up 33 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, five blocks, and three steals against the Cavaliers as the Warriors took a 2-0 series lead after a 132-113 win. In total, Durant has 71 points in two games — more than Harrison Barnes had all series a year ago — and he’s putting to rest the idea that he’s riding the coattails of Steph Curry and the rest of the Warriors to his first ring by leading the team through the first two games.

Durant isn’t the only one playing excellent basketball for the Warriors to start these NBA Finals, as Steph Curry added 32 points, 11 assists, and 10 assists in his first career NBA Finals triple-double. Curry and Durant have carried the Warriors’ offense through two games of the Finals — although Klay Thompson had an unbelievably efficient 22 points on 12 shots in Game 2 as well — and they’ve both been tremendous ever since the start of the Western Conference Finals.

After Game 2, even Draymond Green was in awe of what his two superstar teammates are doing alongside each other, and noted that he’s not sure he’s ever seen either of them play better. That is, except for maybe one time Kevin Durant lit him up, which led to a pretty hilarious exchange as Durant corrected Green to make sure he got his 54-point total correct from that game.

Green chuckled and said he didn’t mean to short change Durant two points, before continuing on to expound on how great the two are playing in these Finals. The play of Curry and Durant has been phenomenal and Green explained that he can see the fire in their eyes as they’re going off.

What makes the play of Durant and Curry so impressive to this point is that they are the two players on the Warriors with the most to prove in this series, and both are managing to step up simultaneously. Durant is doing his best to quiet doubters from his decision to join Golden State last offseason, while Curry is looking to shake off the questions of whether he can perform at his best level in the NBA Finals after the last two years when he wasn’t as dominant as his regular season self.

These Finals were always going to write the narrative for Durant and Curry going forward, but few expected both to erase doubts at the same time. Had one or the other gone off and carried the team alone — or with Thompson or Green as the second key guy — the narrative for the other would have been that he needed significant help to win a title. Instead, both are putting up phenomenal numbers at the same time and erasing those questions together. Durant will make sure you know he’s a big time player after these Finals, and that you won’t ever forget how many points he’s scored on you.

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