Former Longhorn Kevin Durant had several historic performances against the Milwaukee Bucks. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.
In a series where Kevin Durant was receiving little to no help from a Brooklyn Nets team that was absolutely exposed when Kyrie Irving and James Harden were injured, the former Longhorn showed his greatness and almost willed the team to victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 7 on Saturday night.
It was a very emotionally up-and-down game for the Nets, where their championship hopes came to an end with just seconds left in the fourth. Brooklyn was gifted a J.R. Smith style gift from the Bucks’ Brook Lopez. The Bucks center received the inbounds pass with two seconds left on the shot clock and held onto the ball without even getting a shot up.
That mishap from Milwaukee led to one of the greatest shots in playoff history.
That moment from Durant had Twitter exploding and the shot was reviewed to see if it was a three to win the game. The tip of Durant’s shoes were on the line, which makes you think, what if his feet were smaller? Something that obviously cannot be controlled, but nonetheless gave the Nets and Durant to keep their championship hopes alive.
So we thought…
Durant struggled to generate any offense in overtime after scoring a Game 7 record 48 points. His magic, and likely his energy, had simply run out. Durant had played every single minute of games four through seven, which was absolutely necessary as the team could not generate any offense without him.
Durant himself looked gassed in overtime, as he was unable to dribble past the pesky P.J. Tucker, and was subjected to shooting fade aways and deep shots. The ball found Durant in overtime with another chance to tie the game to send it to a second overtime or win the game.
However, the weight of the series, and the 11 other players Durant was having to carry proved to be too much, as he released the shot and it fell about six inches short.
His amazing series in which he proved to be the best in basketball, and his teams hopes of winning the title, bounced aimlessly out of bounds as he could not generate enough strength and air-balled.
His final shot, just like his game-tying shot, was inches away from a different outcome. A feeling that will likely stay with Durant for a while.
