Sports Durant, Curry lead Warriors to 3-0 series lead versus Jazz after pulling away for 102-91 victory.
SALT LAKE CITY— Kevin Durant never exactly said so, but he knew this day was coming, and his teammates knew it, too.
Durant may not have even admitted it to himself, but he also really needed a titanic game like this, a signature playoff moment with this team, and one giant step toward immersing himself in Warriors mythology forever.
And his teammates wanted all of that for him, too.
They got it all — the Full Durant Experience, 38 points, 13 rebounds,
pure dominance — on Saturday in their emotional, come-frombehind 102-91 victory over Utah here in Game 3 to take a 3-0 lead and put themselves one victory away from the Western Conference finals.
And if it was symbolized by one or two plays, it came when Stephen Curry his ownself deferred to Durant on a couple of huge offensive possessions ... and happily watched Durant bury a couple of baskets to reward Curry’s faith.
“Myself, the other 19,000 people in the arena and everybody watching on TV saw the same thing I saw,” Curry said when I asked him about stepping aside for Durant. “So it’s an easy decision at that moment.
“Just try to set the screen for him, get him in the right spot, obviously, he does the rest. And we’re smart enough basketball players to know what’s going on at that moment and just try to make the right decision and let a talented scorer like he is ... let him do what he does.”
On Saturday, exactly when they needed him most, with Curry struggling with his shot and Utah threatening to blow it open, Durant fulfilled a large part of the promise he made to the Warriors — and they made to him — when he agreed to join this team last July.
Give him the ball when everybody else is struggling. Then watch him go.
That’s why they wanted him, and he wanted them. And it’s happening now.
“I want to try to say this as humbly as I can, but I’ve been doing this for so long, every time I roll out of the bed, and we’ve got a game that day, I feel like I can go out there and score,” Durant said.
Durant hadn’t had anything close to this kind of offensive impact in the Warriors’ previous playoff games, including the two he missed with an injury in the first round against Portland.
But he was the singular Warriors’ offensive player in this game from the start, taking it right at Gordon Hayward early and then Rudy Gobert on pickand-roll action in the second half, and he was essentially unstoppable the whole way.
So why was he more aggressive with his shot in this game?
“I just tried to go out there and be more aggressive than I usually am,” Durant said. “I could tell we needed it.
“Like I told (Curry) when we came out of the timeout (in the second half), that’s when we need to just go. And that’s what we kind of did in the fourth.”
Durant had 22 points in the first half, single-handedly keeping the Jazz from taking a large lead. Then when the Warriors were making their ultimate winning push in the fourth quarter — from the point Utah held its last lead, 79-78, Durant made a jumper, a driving lay-up and a three-pointer in the Warriors’ 21-7 run to seal off this game.
They will presumably need more of this from him in the tougher moments to come ... and so far he is one-for-one in this situation this postseason.
There were signs for a few days, Warriors assistant coach Bruce Fraser said, that Durant was heading toward something great in Game 3.
Durant had a great practice on Friday, then requested a personal morning shooting session at the arena on Saturday, even though the Warriors didn’t have a scheduled shoot-around.
Durant had a feeling something special from him might be needed, and he was more than ready to answer the challenge.
“I felt he’d be good tonight,” Fraser said. “He was really energetic in yesterday’s practice — we were talking about how hard K.D. was going.
“I’ve seen him focused before. This was the most. You don’t know for sure, but you see signs. I saw signs that he could be good. He was comfortable, he was focused and he was in good rhythm. And that started yesterday.”
And Durant also was emotional throughout this game, barking with the Utah fans, banging around with the Jazz inside players, and drawing a technical and flagrant foul for crashing back at Gobert in the fourth quarter after Gobert shoved him.
“It was just basketball — he pushed me and I pushed him,” Durant said. “That’s why they call our league soft because we call flagrants for stuff like that. I’m sure he didn’t mind if we just moved on; I didn’t mind if we just moved on with the play. It is what it is; there’s been grabbing and pushing and holding; that’s just basketball.”
What did Fraser think when he saw Durant, who usually seems so calm, even in the thick of playoff madness, acting so ferociously?
“He’s invested in the team,” Fraser said, “and he wants it.”
That’s what the Warriors wanted out of Durant, and that’s what makes him a full-fledged team leader now, not just because of this game, but this game certainly was the topper so far.
He is fitting right into the Warriors’ playoff mojo, alongside Curry and Draymond Green and Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala, and he’s doing it is his own way.
On Saturday, that included Durant in full fury, including the TV cameras catching him telling the Jazz mascot to get the expletive off the court when it was parading around just before play began.
“Did I say that?” Durant said with a chuckle. “I was blacked out; I don’t remember what happened out there.”
Two things: The mascot did immediate get off the court ... and Durant stayed on it, belonged on it, and on this night owned it for the first time as a Warrior.