CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Back in late December of 2013, Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook underwent arthroscopic knee surgery, forcing him to miss a sizable portion of Oklahoma City's January and February slate of games. That put Kevin Durant squarely in the spotlight, and he delivered with arguably the best stretch of his career.
With Westbrook sidelined from Dec. 27, 2013 to Feb. 13, 2014, Durant averaged 35.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.7 blocks while shooting 52.7 percent from the field and 39.9 percent from 3-point range. The Thunder went 20-7 over that stretch with Durant playing nearly 39 minutes per game — he didn't play in a January win over the Celtics, the only game he missed the entire season — and finished 58-24 overall. Durant captured his fourth scoring title with an absurd 32.0 points per game, nearly five points higher than the league's second-leading scorer, Carmelo Anthony (27.4).
On Wednesday night, Durant sent a message to the rest of the league. That version of KD still exists, even if basketball fans don't get to see him all that often.
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Durant displayed a full command of his game as the Warriors cruised to a 101-87 victory over the Hornets. The absences of Stephen Curry (ankle) and Draymond Green (shoulder) placed a heavy burden on Durant's shoulders, not to mention the loss of backup guard Patrick McCaw (concussion) and the early departure of Zaza Pachulia in the first quarter (shoulder).
But just like he did nearly four years ago, Durant carried that burden and made it look easy, scoring a season-high 35 points to go with 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his second triple-double as a member of the Warriors. Durant flew out of the gates to 16 first-quarter points, quickly establishing a rhythm the Hornets simply couldn't break. Warriors guard Quinn Cook, who took Curry's spot in the starting lineup after being called up from the G League this week, knew Durant was locked in from the tipoff.
"I think that he's the best scorer in the world," Cook said. "When he sees the ball go in early, it's gonna be a long night."
He drilled catch-and-shoot chances, finished near the basket and floated fadeaway jumpers over the outstretched arms of defenders.
Through the first nine minutes of the first quarter, the score: Warriors 22, Durant 14, Hornets 12. He later switched into distributor mode, dishing out seven of his 10 assists coming in the second half.
The most memorable play came in the third quarter when Durant, hounded by Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, jabbed left, drove right and Eurostepped around Dwight Howard for an easy layup. The combination of size, skill and creativity left a few NBA scouts sitting in the lower bowl at Spectrum Center shaking their heads.
"It's fun when you get to create, and just be creative out there," Durant said. "Whether it's passing to JaVale [McGee] for a lob or shooting a pull-up jump shot, just all the stuff that you work on in those situations. Tonight it felt like I could go to my bag of tools, bag of tricks to pull some stuff out. I don't expect it to be like that every single game, but tonight, I thought it called for it."
Durant's performance brought a sense of nostalgia and maybe some wistful smiles for the days when No. 35 became an assassin and silenced a crowd, dropping dagger after dagger until the job was complete. With all of the star power in the Bay Area, it's easy to forget Durant is the second-best player in the NBA behind LeBron James, and the gap between one and two is likely smaller than the gap between two and three.
Of course, Durant has made it easier to forget his talent as a player with a recent run of ejections as well as off-the-court distractions like talk of Twitter burner accounts. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr intimated Durant came into this game with a renewed focus after Curry's ankle injury, bringing a different energy to the floor.
"It wasn't so much vocal leadership, it was an 'I got this' type thing," Kerr said. "Just the way he carried himself, clearly the best player on the floor, the dominant player on the floor. I think what he showed was, without Steph in particular, KD was like — he almost had a different bounce to his step, like 'I got it. This one's mine.'"
That desire to take over hasn't been there since Durant joined the Warriors because it hasn't been necessary. Obviously Golden State isn't better off without Curry, but the opportunity presented itself for Durant to bury his head between the lines and do what he does best.
It's hard to say when he will next appear, but it was nice to see Thunder KD again, if only for a night.
