As he planted his right foot in an attempt to gain separation from his defender, Kevin Durant planted all of his hopes in that moment, anticipating that he would feel absolutely nothing. As the weight of his entire body transferred into his recovering calf muscle, old wounds re-opened both literally and figuratively — the strain that was created during Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals looked like it was re-aggravated, with hopes high up in the air that it did not progress to a much worse outcome than before.
It seemed that as that same injury was aggravated and Durant was forced to be shut down for the night, the Warriors’ small window of hope was closing along with it.