For the second straight Finals, Kevin Durant put forth an unbelievable performance in Game 3 on the road in Cleveland to lift the Warriors to a win and give them a stranglehold on the series.
On Wednesday night, it was Durant scoring a playoff career-high 43 points to go along with 13 rebounds and seven assists in a come from behind 110-102 win, giving Golden State a 3-0 lead. Durant carried the load while Klay Thompson and Steph Curry struggled to shoot the ball, which is usually a recipe for disaster for the Warriors. However, having Durant gives them the opportunity to go through a bad game and still win.
Naturally, the talk on Thursday in the player press conferences was about Durant’s performance. LeBron was asked if he thought Durant was going to be a problem when he first went up against him in the Finals back in 2012. LeBron said he’s known Durant would be a problem for a long time and that “everyone” knew he was built for greatness, before remembering Durant was the No. 2 overall pick and used that as a chance to crack a little joke on Portland.
"Everybody knew that besides… Portland." 😂
LeBron had some big things to say on KD.#NBAFinals pic.twitter.com/2v3AsALcF3
— NBA TV (@NBATV) June 7, 2018
The poor Blazers. Greg Oden was supposed to be a generational talent at center and there was plenty of debate about Oden vs. Durant at the top of that draft, but that’s all moot now thanks to Durant’s success and Oden being unable to stay healthy, eventually forcing him out of the league.
The response elicited laughter from the room, but that’s probably not the case in Portland. Their poor luck with injuries to top draft picks is well documented and what happens if Oden (and Brandon Roy) stayed healthy is one of the great “What ifs” of the last decade-plus in the NBA.
