Learning From Losing the Close Ones

Published by Kevin Durant in Blog on January 26th, 2010 | Comments

What’s good everyone? Man, it’s good to be home! We just got back from a four-game road trip, which we split. We won the first two in Atlanta and Minnesota before losing two close back-to-backs against Memphis and Cleveland. They came down to the wire!

And really, I think we got better from staying in those games. Those were against two good teams, two playoff teams basically. Memphis is playing like a playoff team and Cleveland is a championship-caliber team. We were down 14, 15 early to Cleveland but we never let that get to us. We weren’t frustrated, and we came out of halftime and fought. That showed a lot of character and we were in a position to win the games.

Last year, I think it would have been different. If we were down 10 we would have come out a little sluggish in the third, but this year we’ve always picked it up. Coach Brooks has been great at motivating us at halftime, giving us that extra push. We’ve just learned how to persevere.

Of course, my teammates put me in a position to win or tie both games against the Grizzlies and Cavs, but as I’m sure you saw those shots just didn’t fall. After the games I thought about how I could have done it this way or could have done it that way, but I’ve got to live with it. That shot in Memphis, that shot looked good. It looked like it was going in but it came out, bounced off the rim. It’s a learning experience. Ask LeBron, Kobe – they didn’t make every shot in the fourth quarter. A lot of people say you’ve got to be clutch in the fourth but they only look at shots I’ve missed. They don’t look at games in overtime like San Antonio, when I helped put my team in a position to win when it came down to the last shot. Against Indiana – close game and I made shots. And then there was Phoenix – where I made shots in the fourth quarter.

A lot of people could talk about that but they only talk about the shots that help the team go up four points, six points to win the game or seal the game. It is what it is. I’ve got to learn from it. It’s something I can’t get mad over. I’ll just learn from it and watching film is going to help me. That’s all I’m about – getting better.

So after that long road trip it was nice to get back home and enjoy the NFL Playoffs on Sunday. It was fun, man. I wanted to come in for some workouts but they didn’t want anyone to come in. That was like a bad dream, not being able to come in here. I always like going to our practice facility just to chill out or get a massage or something. It just gets me away from a lot of things. But since we have another four games at home this week, they just wanted us to get away for a day. But I got some great work in on Monday and we’ve just got to get ready for our next game and know that practice is very important to us. So the day off was good for us.

Oh yeah, as far as the Super Bowl goes, I’ve got the Colts winning it. The Saints are playing very, very well but I’ve got to go with the Colts. It’s going to be a battle and I’m going to be excited to watch!

Who are you guys picking for the Super Bowl? Anyone planning a cool Super Bowl party? Let me know in my comments section. Talk to you soon!

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