Kevin Durant was left in awe after witnessing his fellow superstar teammate Kyrie Irving take over in the final quarter of the Brooklyn Nets' 128-124 win over the Miami Heat on Saturday. Irving, after all, scored 18 of his 28 points in the final 12 minutes to overcome the Heat's brave fourth-quarter stand.
Post-game, Durant told HoopsHype's Michael Sotto how impressed he was with Irving's skill and dedication to his craft for the Nets.
“You see how special, talented, & hardworking Kyrie is (with the Nets). He works on all those shots every day. He comes in with that mentality, especially late in games, he’s going to have to knock those down for us. He’s an all-world player. He’s a great teammate.”
After trailing early on, Miami had all the momentum in the world in that final period where they actually outscored the Nets, 42-32. Heat All-Star Bam Adebayo was unstoppable during that stretch, en-route to a career-high 41 points along with nine assists and five rebounds.
But Irving made sure his team won't lose three in a row following back-to-back letdowns against the Cleveland Cavaliers in their last two outings. Uncle Drew called his own number and hit all the big-time shots to help the Nets preserve that hard-fought win.
Kevin Durant actually led Brooklyn's attack in the first three quarters and still finished with a team-high 31 points on 11-for-19 shooting from the field and four made threes for the Nets, who know they possess considerable defensive limitations but will sometimes have the ability to simply outscore opponents, which is exactly what happened against the Heat and Bam Adebayo's scoring outburst on Saturday night.
Durant also had four rebounds, four assists, and two blocks in 37 minutes for the Nets. While KD is used to being the one to step up during these types of situations, he was more than happy to take a step back for Irving against the Heat.
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