An All-Star dominates as push comes to shove
SALT LAKE CITY — Kevin Durant is so cool on the court, so fluid and balletic, that it was interesting to see him getting hot at the end of Saturday’s game. He got tangled with Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who has been swinging his elbows all series and as usually happens, the last guy shoving got caught.
Durant got a technical foul and a flagrant foul. But that was about the only thing that could interrupt the flow he was in. He scored 38 points and carried the Warriors to a Game 3 win, pushing Utah to the brink of elimination.
“I want to try to say this as humbly as I can,” Durant said. “But I’ve been doing this for so long, and every time I roll out of the bed and we have a game that day, I feel like I can go out there and score.”
This was the Kevin Durant
the Warriors sought and wooed in July, traveling across the country to the Hamptons in pursuit of his beautiful, lethal game.
Durant’s 38 points and 13 rebounds pulled the Warriors away from the brink of a possible Game 3 defeat and into the realm of complete dominance. The team leads the series 3-0 and can finish off the Jazz on Monday night in Salt Lake City.
“We wanted to quiet the crowd,” Durant said. “I tried to be more aggressive than I usually am. I can tell that we needed it.”
When he plays like this, it’s hard to remember that Durant missed 19 games with a knee injury and only came back late in the regular season. That he’s had to work so hard to get back into shape.
“I’m still getting my legs under me a little bit,” Durant said after Game 2. “If I grab a rebound, I know I can gallop up the floor a little faster than some other guys. I just try to use my length and my passing ability to make plays, and also my scoring ability to get to the rim and get fouled.”
Durant looks like he can do whatever he wants on both ends of the court. Sometimes those in the crowd wonder why he doesn’t just take every effortless shot. It looks so easy.
Basketball doesn’t always work like that, but it did Saturday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
When asked if he sensed Durant was in a rhythm, Warriors point guard Stephen Curry smiled.
“Myself, the other 19,000 people in the arena and everybody watching on TV saw the same thing I saw,” Curry said. “Try to set a screen for him, get in the right spot and he does the rest. We’re smart enough basketball players to know what’s going on at that moment. Let a talented scorer like he is, let him do what he does.”
Mike Brown agreed that something was brewing with Durant, who became the first Warrior in 45 years to have consecutive playoff games with at least 25 points and 10 rebounds, according to Elias. The last one was Nate Thurmond in 1972.
“We felt our guys were locked in,” said Brown, the Warriors’ acting head coach. “We had a pretty good last couple of days . ... When (Durant) started getting going early, I felt it could be a big night for him.”
The Warriors needed a big night from someone. They faced the usual Game 3 setup: a desperate team trailing in the series and eager to get its home crowd involved. Plus, the expected lack of focus that is normal for a team that’s up 2-0.
“We felt like they were going to come out and hit us in the mouth,” Brown said.
The Warriors got out to an early lead, but in the second quarter the Jazz came roaring back, fueled by the crowd, which was jacked up by Draymond Green’s technical foul. Curry and Klay Thompson struggled, and Gordon Hayward and Gobert had big nights.
The Jazz had a one-point lead at halftime, which they expanded in the third quarter. But Durant carried his team until Curry found his rhythm, and by late in the fourth quarter, the belief of the Jazz fans had drained out of the building.
Durant was a little chippy all night. Video caught him telling the Jazz mascot to get off the floor. (“I don’t remember that happening,” he said.) He interacted with fans. And his temper flared when Gobert’s elbow caught him.
“Kevin’s a lot more emotional than everyone thinks,” said Green, who knows a little something about emotional basketball.
“It’s just basketball — he pushed me, I pushed him, you move on,” Durant said. “That’s why they call our league soft, if you’re going to call flagrants for stuff like that. He didn’t mind, and I didn’t mind. It is what it is. Grabbing and pushing. They’re trying to clean that stuff up, I guess.”
Gobert’s take: “I pushed him to get the ball and he didn’t like it.”
No Durant didn’t like it. And maybe he’ll punish the Jazz again in Game 4.