The Philadelphia 76ers had a chance down the stretch in the fourth quarter on Thursday night against the Brooklyn Nets. They were down by as many as 20 before rallying to tie the game at 103 late. Considering how shorthanded the Nets were, this was a game that seemed primed for a Sixers victory.
Instead, superstar Kevin Durant took the game over down the stretch and that was it for the Sixers in this one. The man they call “The Durantula” scored 13 points in the fourth quarter including a huge 4-point play after the Sixers tied it at 103 to lead the Nets to a 114-105 win over Philadelphia.
Durant finished the game with 34 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists on the night as the Sixers had a tough time stopping him in the first and fourth quarters. He scored 23 of his 34 in those two quarters combined.
“That’s KD,” said Joel Embiid. “Great from midrange. Obviously, a great shooter from all over the floor, extremely skilled basketball player. That’s KD. He made some tough ones, but I thought overall, all night, going into that fourth quarter, we did, except the first quarter, we did a great job on him. Matisse (Thybulle) came in and I thought he did a great job on him. We just didn’t finish.”
Durant made it look so effortless down the stretch as it didn’t matter who was in his face. The Sixers just had a tough time doing anything against the Brooklyn superstar.
“That’s what he does on a nightly basis,” said Seth Curry. “We played good defense. We did a good job. He walked into one, that 3, on a big shot, but I think we fought and did a good job for the most part.”
The Sixers had Tobias Harris defending Durant for a stretch in the fourth and he did an admirable job in terms of contesting, but he also allowed the most dangerous scorer in the game to be able to walk into a 3-pointer.
“He was great, but listen, we can’t let him walk into 3s,” said coach Doc Rivers. “We talked about that before the game. Meet him up at halfcourt and both of those, we were behind the 3, and he just walked into them. That’s on us. That can’t be allowed and that happened.”
Kev hit this… pic.twitter.com/GnuNfIgoyn
— Michael Grady (@Grady) December 17, 2021
“It’s funny, Kevin Durant, we were fine with,” Rivers continued. “He had 10 points, but they had 29 points as a team and I thought overall, until down the stretch when Kevin had those seven points in a row, nine points in a row, which Kevin Durant does, up until that point, I loved how we were guarding him. We were trapping him, we were not trapping them, we were mixing it up, but that first quarter, it was everyone else that got involved. When that happens, now you gotta deal with them the rest of the game, now they have confidence.”
The Sixers will now have two days off before preparing for the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday at home.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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