Durant limped out late in the second quarter of the Thunder’s 125-101 mauling of the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, failing to reappear for the second half.
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But it was not just Durant and Westbrook, as the duo also got help from the bench with center Enes Kanter having 21 points and seven rebounds, while guard Dion Waiters added 19 points in the win.
The 2014 National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
On the season, Durant is averaging 28.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 50 percent from the field and almost 45 percent from three-point territory. “For whatever reason – no disrespect to Paul [Pierce] or Kevin Seraphin, the guys that we lost last year, they weren’t first-team all-defensive players – we have basically the same team and we’re not defending as good as we were last year or the previous years”.
Durant missed most of last season with a broken right foot that needed three operations, and Westbrook emerged as the league’s scoring champion. Given the large gap in ability between these two and their replacements, fans could be forgiven for not giving the Wizards much of a chance at that point.
“With Kevin not coming out of the locker room in the second half, I thought our guys came out with great focus and we got stops defensively which enabled us to get out on the break”, Donovan said.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will be without their biggest star for at least a week. Oklahoma City sank 15 of 23 3-pointers during its second straight win.
Instead, D.C. native Kevin Durant’s return to play the Washington Wizards was a dud, starting even before tipoff.
Interesting: Durant was booed every time he touched the ball. I can get a rebound.
“We’re not taking any pride in it”, Wittman said.
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The Wizards will have three days to rectify their issues before hosting Orlando, who they limited to 87 points on opening night, by far the fewest they have allowed all season. “You get me 27 minutes on Saturday, I’ll get you a rebound”. Just got to work to get back. By the time the fourth rolled around, the Thunder were up by 26 and had the game well in hand.
