Durant Ends Streak at 41 Games, Eyes Clippers Game
All good streaks must come to an end and on Tuesday, this was the case for Oklahoma City Thunder’s (56-21) Kevin Durant. In the 107-92 win over the Sacramento Kings (27-51), Durant hit the bench in the fourth quarter and snapped his 41-game streak of scoring 25 points or more.
For the night, the player scored 23 points in three quarters of play (8 for 13 in 31 minutes) and said he couldn’t have been happier the streak had ended. Durant commented via the Associated Press, “I was getting so many texts after every game. I’m glad that’s over with and we can just focus on the team. If we played well and I had 25 points, that took away from how well the team was playing, so I didn’t like that. If we lost, it was all about me scoring 25 points and I didn’t like that either. I’m glad we can just talk about the team now.”
Kevin Durant
Along with only being the third player in league history to accomplish this milestone (see Oscar Robertson at 46 and Wilt Chamberlain at 80), Durant will likely also walk away from the season to win the scoring title–his fourth straight. He has a 32.1 point, 7.6 rebound and 5.6 assist average, ahead of the New York Knicks Carmelo Anthony, who is 4.6 points per game behind him.
As Durant sat on the bench, his team’s bench players exited and went on a 16-0 run to start the fourth quarter, shutting down any chance of the Kings to take a possible win. Caron Butler had a good night hitting all six of his 3-point attempts as he scored 23 points for the night.
Serge Ibaka contributed 19 points with four rebounds; Caron Butler exited the bench and scored 22 points while Russell Westbrook sat out of the game, resting for Wednesday’s big matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers (55-23).
The Clippers are nipping on the Thunder’s heels for the Western Conference second playoff seed as they sit 1.5 games behind.
Fortunately for Oklahoma City, Durant plays well against the Clippers. In his 24 career games against them, he has averaged 29.0 points and in the last six games, a 34.2 point average. In their last game on Feb. 23, a 125-117 loss, Durant scored 42 points.
He will likely be matched up with Blake Griffin, who scored 20 points, seven boards and six assists in their previous meeting.
After defeating the Thunder in late February, the Clippers went on to grab 18 wins over 21 games with a 110.8 point average. Chris Paul has been playing well in his last six games as he has a 23.8 point average with points coming from 3’s.
Vegas has selected the Clippers as the winner for this game (-4, 213 o/u) but looking ahead to the playoffs, the Thunder sit at 2/1 to win the Western Conference and 9/2 for the 2014 NBA Championship. As for the Clippers, they have 9/2 odds to take the Western Conference and 8/1 to win it all.
DeMarcus Cousins
For Sacramento, Tuesday’s loss represented its third straight one. DeMarcus Cousins led the team with his 24 points and 14 rebounds while Travis Outlaw also contributed 24 points. The team has been hit by the injury bug but for the first three quarters of the game, they held their own.
On Wednesday, the Kings will play the Portland Trail Blazers (50-28). Portland has already landed in the playoffs as the Western Conference’s fifth seed but they will continue seeking wins to get home-court advantage for the first round of playoffs.
With four games left to play, the Trail Blazers only sit 2 1/2 games behind the No. 4 seed, the Houston Rockets (52-25), and will look to narrow this gap.
Vegas hasn’t selected a winner yet for this game, but gives Portland 18/1 odds to win the Western Conference and 33/1 to win the championship.
