The Brooklyn Nets signed Kevin Durant two years ago with a torn Achilles in the NBA Finals, because they believed he could get them there. On Tuesday night, with Brooklyn's season in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinal against the Milwaukee Bucks, Durant proved that the Nets' faith was well-founded.
Durant had the best performance of his career on Tuesday night, shooting 16-for-23 with 49 points to finish with 17 rebounds and 10 assists, while 48 minutes into Brooklyn's 114-108 win over Milwaukee. Playing the game, lead the Nets 3 -2 in this best-of-seven affair.
Durant later said, "I thought of nothing but just each and every asset." "I was trying to win every possession, and I didn't think about how many points I had or tries, rebounds, assists.
"It was more like, 'Just let me do what I need to do every right.' That's what I always take."
What Durant needed to do on every right in this game for Brooklyn was, well, pretty much everything. with Kyrie Irving for Game 5 — and who knows how long — with a sprained right ankle he suffered in the second quarter of Game 4, and Harden suffering a hamstring strain 43 seconds on the court for the first time. fell. It was a special Durant performance to win 1, Brooklyn.
And one particular performance is exactly what Durant delivered. After jumping into Milwaukee's early lead, he told Nets coach Steve Nash that he could stay if Nash needed him. So Nash deftly decided to leave Durant there, as he helped Brooklyn bounce back from a 16-point halftime deficit to eventually regain control of the series.
"It's funny what he's capable of," Nash said. "We know he's capable of nights like this, but to do this tonight... we lose [Irving], James is clearly going through his illnesses, we're bodies down, we're wounded. And that brutality to him, that mindset, that's what makes him one of the all-time greats.
"It's a performance that's a signature performance for Kevin, and it was beautiful to watch."
It wasn't quite as beautiful for the Bucks, who left Barclays Center for the third time in the series. But unlike Games 1 and 2, when Brooklyn dominated for the vast majority of both competitions, it was Milwaukee who controlled it for most of the night.
The Bucks posted a double-digit lead in the first quarter and maintained a comfortable cushion in the third quarter. But Brooklyn was able to keep the game going thanks to a sensational performance from Jeff Greene, who had 27 points in 35 minutes off the bench, including 7-for-8 and 17 points from 3-point range, and the other three. - Hints at Blake Griffin, before Durant took over in the fourth quarter.
While Milwaukee took a 87-81 lead after three quarters, the Bucks scored 21 points in the fourth. Meanwhile, Durant himself scored 20 runs in the fourth, including a difficult 3-pointer as the shot clock ended with 50.5 seconds remaining to give the Nets a four-point lead.
"Just keep making it harder," Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said when asked how the Bucks might try to slow down Durant. "Obviously one of the best scorers to ever play the game.
"It's tough. He's the best player in the world right now, and we've got to beat him as a team. We've got to protect him as a team, and we've got to make him the toughest shots, like tonight, and we Just keep doing our job, and hopefully he will miss. But we have to keep doing our job, keep guarding together, keep showing help, keep making it difficult, keep getting it done on the court.
"We have to stop him as much as we can, but at the end of the day, he's done an incredible job. Best player in the world, best scorer in the world. ... There are going to be nights where he's going to do what he does." He did it tonight and he has 50, and there are going to be nights that we try to stop him as much as possible and give ourselves a chance to be in the game and be in a position to win the game.
The Bucks held on to Durant shooting just 20-for-53 in Games 3 and 4 in Milwaukee. But while Milwaukee was able to guard Durant's offensive in those games, officials called for a tighter play in Game 5, which resulted in Durant taking 16 trips to the foul line, and both Jrue Holiday and PJ Tucker — Durant. There were two primary defenders against. - Picking up some early fouls.
Holiday, in particular, expressed disappointment afterward about the calls against him.
"I had three fouls in the first half, [Tucker] had 2, Giannis had 2, and I think a lot of them are not the same, or not the same," Holiday said .
Still, Milwaukee had its chances. With 15.6 seconds left, Antetokounmpo, who had 34 points and 12 rebounds in 42 minutes, thwarted a pass from Middleton that, if he had caught it, would have been an easy dunk to tie the score. .
Instead, Durant caught the loose ball after it was dropped by Antetokounmpo, sinking both free throws and sending Brooklyn on his way to victory.
"I just wasn't able to get my two hands on it," Antetokounmpo said. "Great pass by Khris, I messed up that play.
"But at the end of the day, I can't focus on him. He's in the past. We lost the game. The focus has to be on Game 6, hopefully we can be in the same position as a team and If Chris makes a single pass I can catch it and end the game. But we have to focus on Game 6, get one at home, defend the house."
The Nets were able to defend the home in Game 5, as each team has done in the first five games of this series. And Brooklyn was able to do so because Durant played perhaps the greatest game of his legendary career, when his team needed it the most.
But as Milwaukee heads to try to close the Bucks in Game 6 on Thursday night, Durant was just hoping to be back on the court once again.
"To be honest, I don't even rank or look at performance," he said. "Once they're done, I just try to go ahead and see if I can do it again. It was a fun sport to be a part of. There's a lot of sports in my career that I've been through." Felt like that were fun. I'm sure we can talk about it again when I reflect on it, but for now it's great that we got the W."