The Golden State Warriors remain as the unquestioned team to beat this season in the NBA and that’s in no small part because of the presence of scoring machine Kevin Durant.
The former league Most Valuable Player is having quite a start to the season offensively, as he has averaged 29.7 points on an incredible 55.6 percent shooting from the field over the Warriors’ first six games. And helping boost Durant’s efficiency on offense is his penchant for knocking down shots inside the arc.
According to Anthony Slate of The Athletic, Durant is sinking 10.0 two-point shots – something no one has managed to average for an entire season since the days of Shaquille O’Neal.
Kevin Durant is currently making 10 two-point FGs per game. No player has averaged that for a full season since Shaq in 2002-03.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) October 27, 2018
Unlike Shaq, though, Durant can consistently get buckets from anywhere outside the paint. Durant may not have the heft of the former Los Angeles Lakers’ big man to plow through defenders in the paint and score easy buckets at the rim, but his range, mobility, and relative quickness for a man his size allows the Warriors’ forward to find seemingly endless ways to put the ball through the hoop.
Durant’s ample production inside the arc can also come as ironic to some, considering the Warriors’ penchant for jacking up 3-point shots.
Back in the 2002-03 season, Shaquille O’Neal averaged 10.4 two-pointers per game, most of which were scored in the paint.