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Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant (35) drives against Denver's Quincy Miller (30) during an NBA basketball game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Monday, March 24, 2014. Photo by Nate Billings, The OklahomanDarrell Arthur was wearing Nike high tops. White uppers. Silver details. Baby blue swoosh.
Kevin Durant only made it look like he was wearing roller skates.
Late in the first quarter Monday night, the Thunder superstar took Arthur for a ride. He crossed over to the right, leaving the Nuggets forward reeling. Then, Durant crossed over to the left, and Arthur was lucky not to trip himself.
Durant finished the humiliation hitting a soft jumper and drawing a foul.
Say it with me: M-V-P! M-V-P!
On the day that three-time MVP Magic Johnson proclaimed the race over, Durant further stated his case for the top individual honor handed out by the association. He didn’t have a monster night in a 117-96 win against Denver, not by his standards anyway. He didn’t have a triple-double or even a double-double.
He had a night that reminded you how effortless he makes everything seem.
“He makes it look easy, but it’s not easy what he does,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “He demands a lot of attention. Everybody’s scouting report going into the game is, ‘Make his touches difficult and don’t give him any easy looks.’”
And still, Durant fills the stat sheet and leads the way. Late in the second quarter Monday when the Nuggets were still within striking distance, he had a spurt that basically put the game out of reach.
It started with a drive to the basket. He dribbled past his defender and caused two Nuggets defenders to give chase. He crashed hard into Denver big man Timofey Mozgov but somehow kept control of the ball and put up a shot that fell through.
Remember, this is a 6-foot-11 forward handling the ball like a point guard.
Durant makes hand-to-hand combat with NBA behemoths look like a walk through the Myriad Gardens.
Then came a jumper.
Then a driving dunk.
Then an assist.
And like that, the Thunder was up 17 points.
Durant had 22 points and six assists at halftime. He only scored five more points and dished two more assists in the second half, but he only played another 12 minutes and sat the entire fourth quarter.
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