In scoring 25 fourth-quarter points, Kevin Durant shows Knicks faithful everything he has to offer

NEW YORK — Kevin Durant felt like his Golden State Warriors needed a scoring punch, as the pesky New York Knicks were hanging around longer than anyone expected Friday night in an escalating atmosphere at Madison Square Garden.

What Durant delivered was a scoring haymaker in the fourth, a flurry of uppercuts that left the Knicks staggering in a building that has seen its share of championship fights and championship players through all types of incarnations of MSG.

But it’s doubtful the Garden has seen many scoring displays as clinical as Durant scoring 25 of his season-high 41 points in the fourth quarter of the Warriors’128-100 win — a barrage of easy moves against helpless defenders that turned the crowd from cheering for the Knicks to one admiring greatness.

Aside from DeMarcus Cousins’ejection for apparently trash-talking from the bench, and Durant getting into his own barking session with former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Enes Kanter, a scoring explosion was the next predictable thing on the Warriors’wheel this night.

“You do it in the Garden, it’s a different buzz as well,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said of Durant’s performance. “Low-key, we become fans on the court. It was fun to watch for sure when he gets in that type of aggressive mode.”

Curry was walking up toward the scorer’s table with the game still in the balance, the Warriors clinging to a one-point lead in the fourth. All it gave him was the best seat in the house for Durant’s rhythm, which gave the Knicks the blues as he hit three quick buckets before they could blink, the twotime MVP raising his arms to the sky as the Knicks called timeout.

Considering Curry dropped 51 Wednesday night, it was Durant’s turn, and of course the backdrop of Madison Square Garden and the Knicks’ interest in bringing Durant to this building next season produced the perfect stage for Durant to perform.

Consi der :

One, the

Pirates were practically insulted, if not thoroughly humiliated, last year when the

Lions devoured them in a two-game sweep of their Finals encounter.

You just can’t do that to a squad that owns a player as talented as C.J. Perez.

If there’s something one hates seeing the most in a titular clash, it is watching a serious title-contender getting gobbled up twice in shameful succession.

But San Beda did it. And many even believed the Lions were distinctly deserving of it in 2017.

I remember Lyceum coach Topex Robinson saying last year: “Yes, we lost to a better team.”

Either Robinson didn’t work hard enough as to learn his lessons well following their Game 1 debacle, or San Beda coach Boyet Fernandez was simply in his usual cunning style last year.

But all that is water under the bridge now, so to speak.

There appears to be a different picture this year. While San Beda showed its championship poise once more by dispatching Perpetual with ease 83-72 in the Final Four eliminator, Lyceum seemed more than ready to go to war.

With the Pirates’109-85 destruction of the fancied Letran Knights in the other half of the semifinals, Robinson awed Fernandez no end.

“It will be tough for us to repeat this year,” said Fernandez, who watched the LyceumLetran game unblinking from ringside.

But while Lyceum again has a Perez to press the Pirates’audacious attack almost without letup, Robert Bolick will be San Beda’s natural answer.

In puncturing Perpetual on Oct. 26, Bolick fired 23 points, including 16 in the final half.

You have a Lion like Bolick, San Beda could be well on the way to winning a third straight NCAA crown in 13 years.

How well would Perez perform will define Lyceum’s aim for a first ever title. Revenge written in his eyes?