With the Brooklyn Nets playing their best basketball with the turn of the new year and the Oklahoma City Thunder doing the same, everyone thought last night at the Barclays would be magical. Instead the only big thing that happened is that the Nets ended Kevin Durant’s streak of 30 or more points in a game and it wasn’t because they were playing great.
The Thunder defeated the Nets by 25 points and after leading by as much as 32 points decided it wasn’t necessary to play Kevin Durant. He sat out the entire fourth quarter leaving his total at 26 points for the night and ending his streak of scoring 30 or more points at 12 games.
While many of us were disappointed Durant seemed content with the just the win. He’s never really too big on individual player accolades as we’ve seen him sit out instead of competing for the scoring title.
“The streak was good while it lasted, but that’s the least of my concerns,” Durant said. “It’s easy for me to try to force it to keep the streak alive, but we needed this win because they beat us last time.” …
Durant came out with 1:15 left in the third quarter. Coach Scott Brooks didn’t bother asking the NBA’s leading scorer if he wanted to keep playing to extend the streak, saying he knew what the answer would be.
“If he cared about the streak, he should’ve never missed the two shots. That’s on him. Can’t blame it on me,” Brooks said.
That last part is a joke, obviously, as Brooks is referring to Durant’s two misses from the field on a night he went 10-of-12 and finished with 26 points and seven assists.
The streak ends with Durant having averaged 35.9 points per game in January during this run, one which saw him become the first player with at least 550 points and 90 assists in any month since Michael Jordan did it back in March of 1987, according to Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN).
The Thunder have now won 10 in a row, and have the league’s best overall record at 38-10.
