Kevin Durant went on an absolute tear last week for the Brooklyn Nets. It began with a 51-point performance against Detroit on Sunday and ended with his second-straight 34 point outing in a win over Philadelphia.
Unfortunately, on Saturday, Durant entered the health and safety protocols. Brooklyn played without him later that night and lost to Orlando. On Sunday, it was announced that the Nets’ upcoming two games (against Denver and Washington) had been postponed due to the number of players and staff in the protocols.
Before Saturday, Durant led a roster made up of four rookies to two impressive wins over the Raptors and the Sixers. In three games without James Harden, he averaged 39.6 points.
Philadelphia finished as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference last season, but KD and Brooklyn beat the Sixers for the second time this year on Thursday. In a 114-105 win, Durant put on another clinic and decimated Philly’s bench in the process. Somehow, we missed him stealing the souls of multiple players spectating.
Brooklyn Nets Kevin Durant Talks Smack to Philadelphia 76ers Bench via courtside plug pic.twitter.com/sBxys8bhUP
— NetsKingdom 👑🗽 (@NetsKingdomAJ) December 17, 2021
Kevin Durant celebrates with defeated Sixers bench in Brooklyn Nets win.
It’d be demoralizing to watch KD lead the shorthanded Nets to a victory against your team, so we can empathize with how the Sixers felt in that moment. Philadelphia’s Matisse Thybulle is one of the best defenders in the league, but even he was shown looking up at Durant with a blank stare.
Durant has free-range with running his mouth because he can back it up. Over the last week, he’s trolled Steph Curry (playfully) and Skip Bayless (mercilessly) on Twitter. The 76ers very clearly got the Bayless treatment.
That’s what happens when you’re having one of your best career seasons at 33 years old. KD is averaging a league-high 29.7 points per game, and that’s no easy feat for a player in his 14th year. Or we should say that it shouldn’t be an easy feat, but the natural aging progression doesn’t apply to Durant.
He’s well on his way to winning the second MVP title of his career, seven years after he won his first one in 2013-2014.
If commissioner Adam Silver wants to “grow the game,” perhaps he’ll pave the way for an annual trash talking award and give it to Durant, too, because at this point we don’t know who’s playing this well and talking this much smack on a nightly basis.
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