Kevin Durant’s Last Second Shot And Block Seal Thunder Win Over Clippers

When Kevin Durant scored to put the Thunder ahead by one point with five seconds remaining, even he probably thought his heroics were done for the night. But that wasn’t the case as he also blocked Chris Paul‘s attempted buzzer-beater to secure a 100-99 win for OKC over the Los Angeles Clippers.

“As a kid, I dreamed about hitting the game-winner,” Durant said. “No doubt, the block was good for our team. But as a kid, I wanted to hit the game-winner all the time. So I’ll take the game-winner over the block.”

“I feel like my defense has grown,” he continued. “Since my first year, I never was a liability on that end. I just had to learn the skills. So I felt like I could always guard every position if I was locked in and being aggressive, and using my length to my advantage. I always felt like I was a smart player, but the coaches challenged me at the start of the year to just step it up to another level at the defensive end.”

Durant was helped offensively by Russell Westbrook‘s 33 point effort; Serge Ibaka also contributed 17.

On the other side of things, the Clippers continue to struggle against talented opposition; only five of their 16 wins have come against teams that are above .500.

“The great teams are able to bring it every night, no matter who they are playing against,” L.A guard Chris Paul said. “That’s why the Spurs, Warriors, those types of teams have the records they do. We have had different lineups every night and different guys in and out, but that is part of fielding a great team.”

Photo: Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, by Keith Allison via Flickr Commons

Article by Joe Kozlowski