While Blake Griffin was building towards his Brooklyn Nets debut after a few weeks without game action at the end of his tenure in Detroit, he had a superstar partner in what the Nets call the ‘stay ready’ group: Kevin Durant, steadily working his way back from a hamstring strain.
What Griffin saw then is what you’re seeing now, the same effortless scoring machine who stepped out of two months without game action and right back into a familiar shooting groove.
“He’s been great. I think I said this after his first game back, but just his patience is pretty unbelievable, especially for a guy who can score at will from all three levels,” said Griffin. “His patience and his ability to read the game and get guys going and then pick his spots has been great. When I first got here I was working out with him every day. We were playing 1s and 2s and all that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look like he’s out of rhythm, so it’s not surprising that he came back the way he has. He’s just one of those guys, man. He’s in a league of his own when it comes to scoring and rhythm and all that.”
In his fourth game back, Durant scored 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting in Friday night’s 130-115 win over Charlotte, including 3-of-5 on 3-pointers. He made all six of his free throws. It was a familiar mix of rhythm 3-pointers, pull-ups from beyond the arc in and mid-range, and rim attacks — including one hellacious dunk.
“I think that’s just something that’s very specific to Kevin Durant,” said Joe Harris of Durant’s smooth pull-up game. “I wouldn’t say there’s too many people in the history of basketball that can do what he does at the clip that he does it. It’s definitely a luxury to have that and it makes everybody’s job a lot easier because he commands so much attention no matter when he has the ball. Tonight he was bringing it up or catching it in the post, they were trying all sorts of different schematic things where they were zone, trying to overload, always trying to be in help and it allows a lot of us other guys much cleaner looks.”
Around Durant, Harris and teammates cashed in. He and Landry Shamet made six 3-pointers each and the Nets shot 51.2 percent from 3-point range and 55.3 percent overall. Brooklyn had 35 assists on 47 field goals — matching it’s second-highest assist total of the season. Eleven of those belonged to Durant, his second-highest total of the season as well.
“I just think my experience in the league has helped me in any situation,” said Durant. “I mean, I know, you know, what sets we run, I know where guys are going to be, where they like the ball, but I am a scorer first and I think that is what opens up my passing — when I am aggressive to score, I can get my guys open and find them for open shots so, just being in the league for so long and experiencing different defenses and sets. You know, I'm able to kind of adapt.”
As he’s been building up his minutes to playing 30 on Friday night, Durant has been remarkably efficient. He’s shooting 65.3 percent overall and 58.8 percent from 3-point range over the past four games while averaging 23.8 points, 6.3 assists, and 5.3 rebounds in 25.1 minutes per game.
“Kevin, he’s incredible in that he can come out and score a point a minute as he has in his return,” said Nets head coach Steve Nash before Friday’s game. “If you ask Kevin, he’s always looking to improve. He’s always looking to be more efficient. I know he was frustrated with the turnovers early and I know he’s going to acclimate back to getting his defensive legs and rebounding and all the things he’s capable of doing. The first thing for Kevin, what he could work on when he wasn’t playing is his shooting, shot-making skills, things you could somewhat rehearse without playing. But the rest of it, you have to play the game. The turnovers, the situations, the defensive rebounding, that’s stuff that he needs a time. That is a truth, while he is still brilliant when he slides back into the team, it is a truth that he can still improve and I think Kevin’s mentality is that he always wants to improve. His comfort will grow and his feel will grow, obviously it’s pretty amazing that he can do what he’s done returning, but he definitely has an eye to continue to improve the rest of the way.”