Kevin Durant’s third quarter of Game 3 put the Spurs on the brink

The Spurs tried to guard him one-on-one. They tried to double team him, they tried to force the ball out of his hands and they probably tried praying, too.

In the end, none of it worked.

Kevin Durant had his way with the Spurs in Game 3, torching them for 33 points on 11-of-19 shooting to lead the Warriors to an 120-108 win on Saturday. He scored 19 points on just six shots in the third quarter alone, bullying San Antonio for a four-minute stretch that sapped the life out of the Spurs’ championship aspirations.

The AT&T Center knew what time it was when Durant put the exclamation point on the game. With three minutes left in the third, the all-world scorer hit Manu Ginobili with a vicious pull-back move before pulling up for the three-pointer — plus the foul. If there were any doubts which way the series was headed, that shot cleared it up.

Durant only had 16 points midway through the third period. The Warriors were up just six after battling to erase a first-quarter deficit. Then he took over. Durant went off and scored 11 points in a row, 17 in total between 6:22 and 2:18 in the third, extending Golden State’s lead to 18.

He turned the ball over seven times, yet the Warriors still outscored the Spurs by 25 with their All-Star forward on the floor.

Durant made the Spurs look foolish on defense, and it wasn’t even close. He shot over smaller defenders, blew by bigger ones and made it all look easy as he pushed the Warriors to another win. Golden State is now just one win away from making their third-straight trip to the NBA Finals.

It was equal opportunity employment for Durant, who scored on eight different Spurs players on Saturday night.

And they’ve done it against a well-oiled machine in the Spurs. Sure, San Antonio misses Kawhi Leonard as they should. And he would have made a difference had his ankle held up in Game 1.

But with Durant’s dominance in Game 3, one thing became certain: The Spurs are outmatched. If it isn’t Durant, it’s Stephen Curry. If it’s not Curry, it’s Klay Thompson, and so on and so forth.

Durant was the icing on the cake after the Warriors signed him over the summer. And now that reality has set in, with Durant dropping 33 on San Antonio’s head, nothing is in Golden State’s way.