Kevin Durant is untenable. We’ve all been told that. The media says so (including me). Coaches say so. His teammates say so. There’s supposedly nothing you can do with an elite shooter with sentry abilities that stands two meters tall and has a skyscraper release point. They’re all saying the same thing: all you can do is try to give the guy a hard time.
On Wednesday, the Boston Celtics made it more than difficult for Durant. They made his life miserable en route to a 114-107 Game 2 win over the Brooklyn Nets to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round series.
You won’t often see Durant legitimately harassed by a defender, not even multiple defenders, but turns out he can be defended. Sure, you have to have the Celtics’ staff to pull it off, which no other team in the league has, and that staff has to be almost entirely focused on stopping a man, and the officials have to make the game extremely physical, eh only happened in the playoffs…but here’s KD in the postseason, against the Celtics, focused almost entirely on stopping a man, and so far it’s actually working.
This is of course relative. Durant still scored 27 points on Wednesday, but needed 18 free throws to do so. He shot 4 of 17 from the field and was 0 for 10 in the second half after going 9 for 24 in Game 1.
“I mean, sometimes they play two or three guys against me when I’m not on the ball, they screw up actions when I’m taking stuff off,” Durant said. “I understand [Al] Horford left his man to hit me sometimes. They just play – two or three guys hit me wherever I go. You know? And that’s just the nature of the beast in the playoffs.
“I felt like I had a couple of good shots there in the fourth that just didn’t go down,” Durant continued, “but I look around at a couple of their guys every time I get the ball or line up around me, so I have to be more patient, but also play fast sometimes.”
I have to be more patient but also play fast sometimes. That pretty much sums up the pickle Durant is in. The Celtics give him multiple looks and there are no easy answers. Playing fast can result in forced shots, which Durant had plenty of on Wednesday. But patience can also easily turn into passivity, and indeed Durant became less and less aggressive as he tried to fight for position and navigate the sea of octopus arms that swarmed around him throughout the game.
Finding the sweet spot between patience and aggression is an art form Durant has perfected over the years, but every now and then a challenge arises that reminds even a great player like Durant that 30 and 40 points roll into one NBA game can be scored. let alone in the playoffs, is harder than he usually makes it look.
It’s not that Durant can’t handle tough.
He’s just not used to it.
I remember talking to the great Mark Price a few years ago and I’ve never forgotten what he said to me about confidence. Essentially what he was saying is that it’s not a permanent thing. It comes and goes, even for great players who will happily tell you they never lose their confidence.
Right now, Durant isn’t confident. Does that mean he stopped believing in himself? Of course not. It just means he’s hesitant. He is insecure, jumpy, caught in between. He thinks about who will beat him next, where they will come from, when they will come and how many of them will be. Normally he only sees the basket. nothing else.
Durant was in a pretty good flow in the first half on Wednesday, but there’s a degree of attrition at play here. Durant has played at least 41 minutes in his last six games. He played 42 in Game 2. He’s tired. He’s frustrated. The Celtics wrap around him and just keep pushing.
Next thing you know he’s catching the ball further out and/or later in the clock or not catching it at all but just standing in the corner while Kyrie Irving tries his luck creating something.
This type of surrender, even if it’s only about one or two possessions at a time, usually occurs when every step you take there’s someone checking you out, holding you down, holding you down, and two other guys two steps away waiting to do the same thing. Sooner or later you’re going to put your hands on your hips and miss a game or two.
It doesn’t help that Steve Nash’s offense – whatever you want to call it – consists largely of giving the ball to his top two scorers and hoping they score. Movement is minimal, making it easy or easier for Boston to sit all of Brooklyn’s actions. There are flashes of good stuff. We’re familiar with Bruce Brown’s short rolls and medium strobes, and my guess or hope for Game 3 is that Nash will use Seth Curry more often as a strong sideguard to make it harder for Boston to dig off the wing.
Because right now, when Durant has the ball in the middle area of the floor, the Celtics sink into his line of sight with their wings on either elbow. They’re still fast and skilled enough to recover shooters, so it’s not an easy drive and kick for Durant, but the better the shooter on the wing, the less room for error on those shows or stunts or digs or whatnot however you want to line up those jab moves in Durant’s direction, giving him pause while he tries to gauge if a second defender is coming.
Most of the time they come with a crowd, but on the rare occasion Boston has guys who can hold their own against Durant. Jayson Tatum is working on it. But most of that defense is a team effort, which in theory makes it easier to maintain.
Because Boston is so long overall with so many athletic, switchable defenders, each one is individually relieved. As Durant pointed out in other postgame comments, “[they] I don’t have to chase across screens or fight over stuff, [they] can use [their] Length, sit on the train and help and execute the game plan.”
In fact, it would take extreme effort for any other defense to put Durant in such a stranglehold. But as easy as offense is for Durant, so is defense for the Celtics, who can cover for each other non-stop instead of just having a couple of skilled defenders who have to run into each other to chase Durant. That’s how it usually works. Durant wears you down over the course of a game, not the other way around.
But by two games, Boston has the big upper hand. Brooklyn could have, probably should, have won Game 1, but Durant was caught watching the ball in the dwindling seconds as Tatum slipped behind him for a game-winning layup. You’ve probably already seen the play, but look at Durant (circle above) just standing there like a statue. He glances at the clock and then looks at Smart who, to be fair, thought everyone in the world was going to be shot. In that split second, Tatum broke to the bucket. That’s all it took.
The line is so narrow in this series. A split second of attention could end up making the difference. Had Durant cut off Tatum, Smart might have pulled the trigger himself or stepped up to Jaylen Brown, whose territory Durant would have given up. In any case, it would not have been a layup. The odds would have been in Brooklyn’s favor.
Even with the way Durant has struggled to score, if Brooklyn had secured Game 1 and now went home with a 1-1 draw, it would only be a matter of time before Durant began dominating again.
But now he just doesn’t have the time anymore. If he doesn’t find his groove in Game 3 and the Nets lose again, it’s over. It already looks very unlikely that Brooklyn will beat this Boston team in four of the next five games to win this series, but if the Nets go down 3-0 and need to win four straight games, forget it. Durant and the Nets will be squeezed out, and Boston won’t loosen its grip.