Kevin Durant is averaging a career-high 32.1 points per game this season and is likely going to win the NBA MVP award. Not many teams have been able to slow him down, but the Houston Rockets were able to hold him to a modest 7-for-19 shooting night on Friday. Durant still scored 28 points, but his 36.8% shooting was one of the Oklahoma City Thunder star’s worst games of the year.
After the game, Durant was asked if the Rockets frustrated him by playing so physically. The normally soft-spoken star briefly broke character.
“They wasn’t playing one-on-one, it was one-on-three,” Durant said, via Clutch Fans. “They were funneling on me with two or three guys. Before I got the ball they had two guys on me. Those dudes can’t check me one-on-one. They know that. I ain’t afraid to say it either. I was playing with double-teams, triple-teams, but you still gotta find a way to do it. They’re physical like everybody else.”
The Rockets probably don’t care if they can check Durant one-on-one. They won the game, which is more important than being able to brag about shutting one of the best players in the game down with one-on-one defense.
The Thunder and Rockets are two of the better teams in the Western Conference. They could very well meet again in the playoffs, so perhaps Durant is trying to get Houston’s head a bit by challenging them. We wouldn’t doubt it.
H/T Bleacher Report
