In the era of load management and on the second game of a back-to-back right before the NBA All-Star break, the Golden State Warriors would never play Kevin Durant for all forty-eight minutes of the game in Portland, but they probably would have won if they did.
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KD started out strong with 16 points on 7 for 9 shooting, 3 rebounds and an assist in the first quarter, dropping this three to close it out:
Durant was attuned to his teammates and strong with his moves to the rack, including this nice alley-oop set up by Klay Thompson:
KD had 20 points on 8 for 11 shooting at halftime and he came out in the third and continued his easy money sniping:
With five minutes to go in the third quarter, the Warriors still had a lead and Kevin Durant was still deadly efficient with 28 points on 10 for 13 shooting, including this three assisted by the nice touch pass from Jonas Jerebko:
Set up by the steal from Jerebko and KD’s other-worldly offensive awareness and floor spacing, Durant took another nice assist from Klay Thompson and threw it down for the hammer dunk:
But the sequence that clinched the Warrior Wonder for KD and exemplified his potent, two-way efficiency on the floor was this block and trash-talk on Damian Lillard leading to his strong take to the rack and trash-talk to the Blazers’ bench on the other end:
Some had high praise for KD’s performance and others questioned why Kerr would sit Durant when Kevin was locked in:
But disgruntled fans have not won multiple NBA championships like Steve Kerr, and Kerr played Kevin Durant for the more minutes than anyone else on the team, except for Stephen Curry who also played a team-high 33 minutes.