Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who had the opportunity to play with the legendary Michael Jordan in his best moments for the Chicago Bulls, said that currently the NBA has the player who has taken his place, in the figure forward Kevin Durant.
The Warriors superstar is in the midst of one of the best postseason runs in history.
The 30-year-old Durant continued his brilliant playoff performance by scoring 35 points and grabbing five rebounds in a 104-100 win over the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal tie.
There’s a guy named Michael. Kerr declared at the end of the match. I don’t remember his last name. No, but Kevin’s career last week just got off the charts. “
Kerr continued with a serious analysis of everything Durant does and means to the team.
I’ve said it several times this week: He’s the most skilled basketball player on Earth. He is one of the most skilled in professional basketball, ”Kerr stressed. There has never been anyone like him. How tall he is, how he handles the ball, shoots triples, passes and defends. He is an incredible talent.
The Warriors coach admitted that Durant’s resurgence came from the loss they suffered in Game 2 of the first-round playoff tie against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“I think after losing Game 2 in our field to the Clippers, he felt like he had to turn up his performance and take us to another level. That is exactly what it has done, ”Kerr said.
Durant, who averages 40.2 points in his last five games, including 50 goals against the Clippers, in the sixth and decisive game of the tie, which won 4-2 to the best of seven, has surprised everyone in the game. organization.
The Warriors’ star forward, who in the previous two games of the first-round tie against the Los Angeles Clippers set his best professional playoff records of 45 and 50 points, respectively, scored 11 of 25 shots from the field and 12 of 15 from the personnel line against the Rockets.
Durant scored at least 30 points for the fifth straight game, tying his best professional record set in the 2017 season June 1-12, his first with the Warriors.
The star of the team, with his first basket of the game, reached 1,281 points and surpassed the legendary Wilt Chamberlain (1,246) in fifth place on the list of the Warriors’ all-time top scorers in playoff competition.
“He’s playing great now,” Warriors power forward Draymond Green said. “He’s being extremely aggressive, and when he is, I don’t think there’s anyone in the NBA, maybe the world, who can stop him. So when he’s so aggressive, it’s always positive for us. ” It is a challenge for the rival team.
For his part, Durant has taken the performance he has had in recent games calmly after throughout the season he also showed confidence in his ability to take charge of games when the team needed him, hence he does not feel surprised. for the contribution of the playoffs.
“I try not to compare,” Durant commented. «If I am aware that I have matured as a player and now I can apply it at all times, as a complete player, who has experience on both sides of the field and, most importantly, that I am not worried about the points or the shots I make, I am just concentrated on each possession.
Durant and the Warriors will enter the second game with the advantage and optimistic to see how they found a way to play as a team and overcome the Rockets, despite the fact that the key players in their attack, guard Stephen Curry and guard Klay Thompson did not shine. being decimated by the effects of both right ankle sprain injuries.
Both hope to take advantage of Monday’s break to continue with the treatment that allows them to improve and ensure that Durant has more offensive support from the team, which will give him a greater margin of action during the game.
“It was amazing,” said Durant’s Curry. “He has been so aggressive on the offensive side that he made a difference for our team.
Curry thinks that it does not matter which opponent scores Durant because in the end he will make his shots to the basket and also in the most decisive moments of the game, while his defensive play had also been of a high level.
“It just understands what we need and when we need it. And he has been playing with the utmost confidence. I know he always has, but it seems that he has increased it in these last five games, “said Curry. “His contribution has made a difference in our favor and that is why we already have the advantage in the tie against the Rockets.”