There is no doubt that Durant's scoring ability is at the top level in history, but he is not invincible. As a player, Durant also has shortcomings, otherwise he would not have won a championship before joining the Warriors.
Durant's shortcoming lies in his physical fitness. His lack of physical strength has always been Durant's shortcoming.
As the top scorer, Durant's career highest scoring record in a single game is only 54 points.
54 points is actually not too few, but when it comes to a historical scorer like Durant, it is a bit underwhelming. With such a strong scoring ability, he should at least have a 60+ scoring performance once in his career.
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The reason why Durant has never scored 60+ points in his career for so many years is that physical limitations are one of the main reasons.
Watching Durant's games, many times he performs superbly in the first three quarters, scoring 30+ or more points early on, but in the fourth quarter, especially in the final critical moment, his performance is always unsatisfactory.
This is precisely because of Durant's physical problems, which led to a decline in offensive ability.
Just like the 73-win Barnes version of the Warriors-Thunder game that was supposed to be played in the Western Conference finals, in the last three games that were tied for three consecutive games, Durant only performed normally in the fourth quarter of one game, shooting 4 of 9 from the field.
Maintain a stable hit rate.
In the remaining two games, one made 3 of 10 shots from the field and only made 30% from the field, and the other game made 1 of 7 shots.
Both are scorers. Compared with players such as Kobe Bryant and Iverson, the classic scorers of the old era, although he is better in scoring efficiency and shooting percentage, he does not have the energetic physical fitness of Kobe Iverson, and there is no way to compete with him.
They played the whole game with all their strength.
This problem has actually been bothering Durant for a long time. It was not finally solved until Durant chose to join the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016.
Most fans only remember the death of Durant in the finals of the 17 and 18 seasons, and he hit consecutive fatal three-pointers in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. However, no one realized that in the previous few quarters, Curry, Thompson and others played a decisive role in the tough battle.
contributions made.
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May 16, 2016, Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
The Warriors' home court is a sea of gold.
The players came on stage one after another amidst the cheers of the home fans, jumped the ball in the middle circle, and the game officially started!
Cole folded his arms in front of his chest and looked at the players on the field expressionlessly, but he couldn't help but recall what Wang Feng said to him a few days ago.
"Coach, I hope Durant can be left to me to deal with the Western Conference Finals game against the Thunder."
"Of course."
When Cole heard Wang Feng's words, he couldn't help but laugh and said: "You are the core of the team's perimeter defense. You must be responsible for guarding the Thunder's offensive arrow. You don't need to worry about this."
"No." Wang Feng shook his head: "What I mean is that I will focus on Durant throughout the whole process and limit his scoring as much as possible. For this reason, I will not be too involved in the offensive end, just like last year's postseason.
It's like guarding James Harden against the Rockets."
"This..." Cole was stunned.
Durant and Harden are players with completely different styles. Wang Feng's defense against Harden in last year's playoffs was very good, but this does not mean that he will have the same effect in defending Durant.
However, if Wang Feng can really do it, even if it only limits Durant's performance to a certain extent, the Warriors' game will definitely be much easier to play.
Durant is the Thunder's leading scorer, and Wang Feng is only the Warriors' third scorer. A one-for-one swap is definitely a sure win.
The only question is whether Wang Feng can really prevent Durant from dying as he said.
…
Thunder center Adams won the jump ball in the center circle. Westbrook dribbled the ball across half court and stood still, looking around the court.
The Thunder players have settled into their positions one after another, and so has Durant.
Westbrook didn't hesitate and passed the ball to Durant.
Although there has been a joke in the league that only Westbrook can guard Durant, at the beginning of the game, Westbrook, who had not yet taken the lead, was still happy to pass the ball to Durant, relying on Durant's efficient scoring.
Opening up the situation is also the style of play that the Thunder are best at.
Durant caught the ball at a 45-degree angle on the left side of the three-point line, and then looked at Wang Feng standing in front of him.
Durant is quite familiar with this outside defensive expert who just won the honor of the All-Defensive Second Team. He also knows very well that Wang Feng is best at defending outside shots.
"Then you come and take a look."
Durant slowly dribbled the ball forward and changed direction, pulling the basketball back and forth sharply to adjust the rhythm.
This is one of his signature moves. With his outstanding height and exaggerated wingspan, Durant has a very wide span when making this move. Defensive players who are not quick enough will have difficulty guarding subsequent breakthroughs or emergency stop jumpers.
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Sure enough, after completing the double change of direction in front of the body, Durant jumped directly on the spot and pulled out his hand.
"So high!"
Wang Feng's heart trembled. He had caught up immediately and raised his hand high to try to block the shot, but his outstretched arm couldn't even reach Durant's eyes.
The height difference between the two is too big, and Durant's exaggerated wingspan makes Durant's shooting point much higher than that of ordinary players. This shot caused no interference at all.
"brush!"
The basketball swiped the net into the frame, and Durant hit a long-range two-pointer to give the team the lead.
"It doesn't matter, keep working hard, you can do it!"
Curry stepped forward and patted Wang Feng on the shoulder and whispered.
When the Warriors attacked, Curry held the ball against Westbrook, broke through to the basket to attract the Thunder center to help defend, and then passed the ball to assist the center for a two-handed dunk.
The offense and defense transitioned, the Thunder had the ball, and the basketball was once again handed over to Durant.
This time Durant chose to post up Wang Feng and hit a fadeaway jumper about 18 feet away from the basket. Wang Feng could only watch as his opponent made the shot.
Durant felt very hot today. He took 5 shots and hit 4 goals in the first 5 minutes of the game. He also successfully caused Wang Feng to foul once and scored 10 points.
Wang Feng kept an eye on him all the time, but seemed helpless.
Faced with the absolute height advantage, Wang Feng's defensive trick, the defensive shock badge, was only activated twice in Durant's five shots.
There is no way, the top scorer cannot be completely prevented.
What Wang Feng can do is to use the bonus effect of the Death Coil Badge to consume Durant's physical energy as much as possible before Durant catches the ball, hoping that the opponent's physical energy will be excessively exhausted.
Soon, the first quarter of the game was over.
Durant made 7 of 9 shots in the first quarter and scored 18 points.
As a result, the Thunder entered the second quarter with a 6-point lead at 33:27.