With four seconds left in overtime, Stephen Curry pushed the ball past half-court against the Oklahoma City Thunder and shot a 38-foot three-pointer that ended the contest. Curry exploded in celebration, dancing and shaking hands with his teammates. The watching world was flabbergasted. Kevin Durant sat sullen and regretful on the Thunder bench, watching the shot and subsequent celebration, and ruing his powerlessness in the face of it all.
Kevin Durant was perfect against the Warriors until he wasn’t
Durant had a marvelous game battling Stephen Curry’s Golden State until a critical turnover and foul.
J Pat Carter/Getty Images
Durant was instrumental in helping the Thunder come close to defeating history’s greatest team. He was also pivotal in the eventual loss.
With time running out in regulation and the Thunder up by two, the ball was inbounded to Durant. He was quickly double-teamed. No timeout was called. Instead, he desperately heaved the ball to half-court, resulting in a turnover. The subsequent Warriors possession fell into Andre Iguodala's hands inside the three-point line for the last shot.
As he shot, Durant rushed to close out and inadvertently fouled him. Despite missing the shot, Iguodala, shooting 61 percent on free throws this season at the start of play, made both and sent the game into overtime. Iguodala shrugged on his way to Steve Kerr.
WTF JUST HAPPENED pic.twitter.com/0UXP2hD6aY
— Rob Perez (@World_Wide_Wob) February 28, 2016
Durant walked back to the bench with his teammates knowing that it was his critical mistakes -- both the turnover and foul -- that led to the completion of the Warriors' comeback. Yet there was still five minutes left in extended time for him to atone. And given his performance in regulation, he was more than capable of not only keeping up with the human torch masquerading as Curry, but of realistically winning the game for the Thunder. It was to be the biggest statement for his team and himself: they would not be resigned to footnotes in the stories of Golden State and Stephen Curry.
Forty-seven seconds into overtime, Curry drove at the basket for a layup. Durant went to contest it and fouled the point guard. It was his sixth, consequently fouling him out of the contest. He went to the bench and sat.
He sat and watched his team battle against the avalanche that is Golden State. He watched Russell Westbrook try to do everything in his power to hold back the landslide. And he watched in agony as it was all fruitless in the face of an MVP who can shoot transition game-winning threes from almost 40 feet away.
Durant knew he had helped his team to defeat.
But with less than 15 seconds in regulation, he had been the hero. Klay Thompson had made a three-pointer (the first one of the night by a Warriors player not named Curry), and the score was 100-99 in Oklahoma City’s favor. Durant responded with a three-pointer of his own to stretch the lead even more. The next possession, Thompson made a layup, and then Durant’s nightmare began.
Before that layup, Durant had shown the world once again that he was as impossible as the current MVP. He led the Thunder with 37 points, shooting 7-of-11 from three. One of those threes came with a stamp of authority: with the end of the third quarter in sight he had the ball in the left wing, guarded by Iguodala, one of the best defenders in the league. Durant proceeded to take him to the ice rink and leave him sliding around with a crossover before draining the shot.
Even the three-pointer that answered Klay Thompson's was a catch-and-shoot with a defender draped all over him; an assertion of incredible ability. He was, for all intents and purposes, unconscious from long range. He was also close to unguardable from the field in general. Not only did he abuse Iguodala, he spent the earlier parts of the game showing Draymond Green the limitations of his defensive powers. During many instances, Durant waved off an incoming pick in order to go against Green one-on-one, a battle that he was coming out the winner more often than not. It resulted in Green cursing himself and, in the locker room, his entire team's performance in frustration.
Durant was playing as if he wanted the game more than anyone. As if the comments by Curry before the first match-up, where he prophesied a win against the Thunder, were still fresh in his mind. For almost four whole quarters, the narrative stood that Kevin Durant out-dueled the MVP and propelled his team to an exhilarating victory.
But with these Warriors, every mistake is rewarded with a debilitating punishment. And it was so that with less than 15 seconds left, Durant tossed the ball, victory and his own triumphant narrative into the hands of Golden State.
And so in overtime, with Golden State hurtling once again to an inevitable win, and the Thunder needing all of the help they could get to try and prevent defeat, Durant was forced to sit on the bench and watch. It’s one thing to try and fail. It’s an entirely different situation to be unable to do anything to change your fate.
Steph Curry ran down the court, released what would be the game-winner, and Durant followed the ball with his eyes as it arced in the air and swished through the net. Durant watched his teammates drop their heads in disappointment and he felt the pain twice as much as anyone else. The Warriors won to continue their historic streak, and Durant and the Thunder were once again relegated to the role of observers.
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