The Portland Trail Blazers have sent their apologies to Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant for snubbing him with the top overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, but that wasn't enough for the 2014 MVP to hold back in his team's visit to Oregon for their Wednesday night matchup.
Durant exploded for the defending champions, registering 50 points on 17-of-27 field goal shooting with six long distance makes. On a night when the Splash Brothers in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were a combined 12-of-32 from the field, Durant carried the Warriors on his back.
His effort wasn't enough, though, as the Blazers had their backcourt duo of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum smoking with 44 and 29 points, respectively.
Ironically, the figurative nail on the Warriors' coffin was delivered by no one else but Durant. With nine seconds remaining and Golden State with possession, down by four points, Durant took an inbound pass from Andre Iguodala and went on to swish a deep 3-pointer. However, he was too deep for his own good as the referee whistled on an out-of-bounds call against Durant, negating what could've been his 53rd point.
Interestingly, Durant actually made a shot that would not have been surprising, given his knack for crunch time baskets. However, what caught the eye of Coach Nick from BBallBreakdown was the manner in which the Warriors forward caught the leather.
Knowing how KD likes to keep his heels up on the catch, I’m a little surprised that he would’ve been out of bounds on this. But I think u can see some contact by heel on ground pic.twitter.com/B4KdDMIMhH
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) February 15, 2018
While it's a strange sequence for Durant indeed, it happens to the best of them. The '96 Bulls lost ten regular season games. Mark Price missed free throw shots. It's part of the rare nuances that these stars encounter.
With the loss, Golden State has now relinquished their hold of the league's best record to the red-hot Houston Rockets.
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