Kevin Durant may have had a great game statistically during the Oklahoma City Thunder’s loss to the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night, but not much went right other than that. Durant finished with 33 points on 11 of 16 shooting, but he was also charged with a flagrant foul and given another technical foul. We’ll get to those later.
It’s possible that the fans in Utah were one of the sources of Durant’s frustration. After the 109-94 loss, the Thunder star took to Twitter to scold some of the Jazz fans who were sitting behind Oklahoma City’s bench:
I love playing in Utah, just upset at how the fans treated us behind our bench….we don’t deserve that..but I’m movin on
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) February 13, 2013
Coming from a guy who rarely criticizes anyone not named Skip Bayless, that’s saying something. As for the flagrant foul, Durant threw a hard block into Utah guard Alec Burks late in the fourth quarter. It was the first time he has been charged with a flagrant in his career, and it led to Burks’ teammate DeMarre Carroll getting into it with Durant.
“I just told him, ‘Don’t be playing dirty out here. If you’re going to play dirty, play dirty in the park. We’re not going to be playing dirty out here,'” Carroll said after the game, via The Salt Lake Tribune. “Burks is a young guy. He really ain’t going to stand up for himself so … I know I might not have all the money to give away but, hey, I’ll take a stand for my man Burks.”
Carroll said Durant then told him to get out of his face, and the two were slapped with technicals. For whatever reason, we have seen a much more animated Durant this season than in years past. He recently admitted that he needs to watch his mouth and stop talking to officials, but maybe he just needs to cool his jets altogether.
Photo Credit: Mark D. Smith-US PRESSWIRE
