Durant return leaves old team wanting less

Star who left town welcomed back but homecoming isn’t ‘loveydovey’

Kevin Durant laced a dribble between his legs, stepped back, drilled an 18foot elbow jumper over his defender’s outstretched arm and turned toward the Warriors’ bench. More than 19 months have passed since Durant signed with Brooklyn after three Finals and two NBA titles with Golden State. But as Durant stared down former teammates midway through the third quarter of the Warriors’ 134117 loss to his Nets at Chase Center, he appeared intent on making sure they understood all they lost when he left.

Durant’s Bay Area stint only lasted three seasons because he wanted to be considered the

Inside

greatest player of his generation over LeBron James, and he knew that wouldn’t happen as long as he shared a roster with Stephen Curry. Little more than third of the way through his first healthy season with the Nets, he can take pride in knowing that his new team drubbed his old one in both meetings.

Durant helped propel Brook

lyn to a 26point rout of the Warriors on opening night. In Chase Center — where he attended the groundbreaking — for the first time on Saturday, he was a key playmaker even when shots wouldn’t fall, leading the Nets to a convincing win on a night when he was honored with a video tribute.

Durant’s stats — 20 points on 8for19 shooting (1for6 from 3point range), six assists, five rebounds and two blocks — were hardly memorable by his standards, but he was plus22 in his 33 minutes. With Durant commanding multiple defenders and finding open shooters, the Nets left little doubt after they took a 6651 lead into halftime. Midway through the third quarter, Golden State had given up a 165 run to dig a 26point hole.

“It sucked,” Warriors forward Draymond Green, who went down with an apparent knee injury late in the second quarter before returning to start the third, said of facing Durant. “We got our a— kicked.”

Even Curry, whose brilliance has been his team’s lone constant in recent weeks, struggled to settle into much of a flow. Though he finished with 27 points, he committed four turnovers, missed seven of his nine 3point tries and posted a minus26 in 34 minutes.

Klay Thompson, out for the season, got so frustrated with the Warriors’ porous defense in the fourth quarter that he grabbed a chair cover on the sideline and, while shaking his head, tossed it back a row. Saturday’s loss was surely tougher to stomach for him because it came against the team Durant chose in free agency in 2019.

Though Durant tried to downplay the significance of his first game in San Francisco in its leadup, his emotion throughout the Nets’ romp over the Warriors suggested that this one was more than the typical matchup for him.

He embraced Curry and Green pregame. Midway through the first quarter, Durant glanced up at the video tribute of him playing on the jumbotron, nodded and pointed toward Warriors general manager Bob Myers and majority owner Joe Lacob. On multiple occasions, Durant looked toward Golden State’s bench after knocking down a shot. Even when Durant stared down his old teammates after hitting that 18foot elbow jumper midway through the third quarter, he didn’t seem to have any animosity toward his former franchise. This was merely a competitor trying to oneup players he knew well and show them what they’re missing.

“The guy gave everything to us for three years,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said of Durant. “There should be a lot of love for him. He did so much for us.”

Though the Nets have lagged behind outside expectations, they won their twogame season series against the Warriors by a combined 43 points. On Saturday, Golden State was often slow to rotate defensively as Brooklyn piled up 35 assists — including 16 from James Harden — to only 13 turnovers.

The Nets finished 53.8% from the field (41% from 3point range) as they held the Warriors to 9for34 shooting beyond the arc. It might surprise some that Brooklyn, which entered Saturday with a 24 record in its previous six games, has only two more wins than Golden State.

But records aside, few should doubt that the Nets are the far more talented team. That’s thanks largely to the fact that they boast Durant, who, after missing all of last season with a torn Achilles tendon, is back to the dazzling ways that Warriors fans once relished.

“It’s not loveydovey out there,” Curry said, “but you know those memories are near and dear, for sure.”

Photos by Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle Above, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry take a good look around in the first quarter Saturday. Durant finally got to play in Chase Center — and he delivered. Below, James Harden, who had 16 assists in the Nets’ win, is guarded by Curry.