But he left with a hamstring strain and didn’t appear in the second half. Even without Durant for the second half, the Oklahoma City Thunder ripped apart the disengaged Wizards, winning, 125-101. Before his departure, Durant had a double-double in the first half, contributing 14 points and 10 rebounds along with 4 assists on 4-of-8 shooting.
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This season, Durant is averaging 28.1 points (fourth in NBA), 7.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.25 blocks and 34.7 minutes in eight games (all starts). The margin of victory was the largest against Washington this season. I’d still rather leave that shot to Ibaka, but Kanter had a great game overall.
Durant had an MRI on Wednesday that confirmed the injury.
It’s time for the Wizards faithful to pump the brakes on the ride that is Kevin Durant’s courtship and have a reality check.
“It means a lot coming back playing here”, Durant said, “because I remember as a kid catching the train to watch (games) … and to be able to walk on that court as an National Basketball Association player it shows the journey that I’ve been on”.
But Durant was the player that really fueled the Thunder’s dominance early.
Durant still holds a strong relationship with Harden since his departure from the Thunder and has spoken highly of the Rockets’ organization in the past. Read on to discover our top three picks for Durant’s destination in 2016. I’m not going to give up. “I think they both understand that they can play off of each other”. Washington also possesses a talented roster that is headlined by one of the league’s best backcourts in John Wall and Bradley Beal. “I might as well stick four guards and a center out there and play, because we’re getting beat on the boards with my supposed big me out there.’ We let teams take it to us the last three games”.
The oddity of this swoon lays in the specifics of what is causing it. The Wizards have been an atrocious defensive team despite returning so much of the same personnel.
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A shift to a more up-tempo offense and the corresponding lineups to fit the style has surely affected the defensive performance but the decline nonetheless remains confounding for a team that returned every significant contributor from last season besides two defensive liabilities – Paul Pierce and Kevin Seraphin. “So nothing’s changed, just our mentality and approach to the game”. We still have the same guys we’ve had the last couple years. In 2014-15 the Suns went 22-19 in the desert – not one team that made the Western Conference playoffs won less than 27 games at home.
