Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant said there was no such rivalry with LA Clippers point man Patrick Beverley, yet people were hoping the latter's aggressive and pestering style of defense could forge an epic narrative between the two:
“I felt a lot of people wanted to make a thing out of me and Patrick Beverley,” Durant told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated after the Warriors’ 104-100 win over the Houston Rockets in Game 1 on Sunday of a second-round series. “They wanted that rivalry. They wanted me to get into it with him. Why do I have to get into it with anybody? I just am who I am. I don’t do that. I play ball. I don’t get into all that extra s**t. I was hoping that everyone already knew who I was because I don’t do that s**t.”
Durant was productive in Game 1, though he and Beverley were ejected from the game after drawing double technical fouls. The Warriors forward was then relatively quiet in Game 2, taking only eight shot attempts in a miraculous Clippers win after coming back from a 31-point deficit. However, Durant asserted himself throughout the rest of the series, ultimately putting them away in six games:
“I have a track record over the years that I don’t fight anybody,” said Durant. “Go back and think about how I play. That was my whole thing. It wasn’t big-upping myself as a player. That isn’t my approach to the game. I don’t get into it with players. Don’t make it about me and him.”
Durant's “I'm Kevin Durant. You know who I am” assertion was more of a matter-of-fact assessment that he doesn't have anything to prove, yet he went out and proved just how much of an unstoppable force he can be, even if cagey defenders like Beverley are draped all over him.
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