Getty Brooklyn's Kevin Durant is interviewed after Game 2 of the Eastern Conference second-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks at Barclays Center on June 07, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
The fear all along was that these Brooklyn Nets, as dangerous as they are when healthy, would not be able to endure the toll that a season and postseason take. Someone was bound to get hurt when it mattered most.
Well, it happened: James Harden suffered a hamstring injury just a minute into Game 1 of their second-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, and was subsequently ruled out for Monday’s Game 2.
Turns out that didn’t really matter all that much, at least in the scope of that game.
The Nets put forth arguably their most dominant outing of the season on Monday, demolishing the Bucks 125-86 to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
No Harden, no problem.
In fact, with The Beard sidelined, that meant even more of the spotlight for Kevin Durant, who once again did not disappoint. The 11-time All-Star dropped 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range. He added six assists and four rebounds.
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Durant Claps Back
It was another performance that served as fodder for Durant’s case as the league’s best player. And it came just under two years after he suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon.
That fact prompted a line of questioning during a postgame interview with TNT’s Jared Greenberg that got a bit awkward.
“Tomorrow (Tuesday) will mark two years since you initially injured your (Achilles),” Greenberg said. “I know you worked your butt off to get to this point, but did you ever think you’d be this good?”
Durant looked incredulous: “Is that a real question? Of course! What you want me to say to that?”
“I mean it’s pretty impressive what you’ve been able to do,” Greenberg replied.
“Thank you. I appreciate that,” Durant said. “But I mean that was two years ago. I’m looking forward to just getting up tomorrow, going to practice, watching film and seeing how we can get better. I appreciate that, but that was too long ago.”
Greenberg took it like a champ, concluding the interview with: “All right, well, I’ll come up with some more real questions for you next time. Thanks, Kevin.”
“Love,” Durant replied, with a smile and laugh.
‘Is that a real question?”
KD wasn’t having it 😂
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Durant Looking Ahead to Game 3
Durant led the Nets with 32 points, but it wasn’t only him, of course. To beat the Bucks by 39, it truly takes everyone.
What stuck out most to Durant was his team’s wire-to-wire intensity.
“You got to credit that to the coaching staff,” Durant said, via nba.com. “They do a good job of keeping us focused in shootarounds and practices and not letting us slip for a second on game plan practicing, it’s been that way whenever we get a chance to practice this whole season. You got to credit the coaches for keeping us locked in then I try to help them out when we in the locker room by ourselves and trying to tell guys what I see and vice versa. Everybody’s just got an open dialogue out there with what they see and we just try and correct it and follow the gameplan.”
Now the series turns to Milwaukee, where the Bucks will host Game 3 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
“We know how important Game 3’s are,” Durant said, “and we know that their crowd is going to be in it from the second we get on the floor for warmups and we know their guys they play better and more comfortable when they sleep in their own beds and got their same routines at home. So we got our work cut out for us but we’re looking forward to it.”
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