Keeping up with KD: The Streak

Published by admin in Blog, News on February 26th, 2010 | View Comments

Sixty-four days, 29 games, 310 made field goals and 288 sank free throws later, and Kevin Durant’s historic scoring streak has come to an end.

Durant’s streak of consecutive games with at least 25 points officially ended at 29 games in Wednesday’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

As Durant said after the game, “It was good while it lasted. Teams in this league are too tough for my streak to continue to go on like it did. It was very cool while it lasted. I am very fortunate and privileged to do something like that. I feel very blessed. Any player would remember something like this.”

Oh, the memories.

For starters, Durant’s scoring binge ranked tops among all active players. He had already surpassed Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson and sat behind the legendary Michael Jordan, who scored at least 25 points in 40 consecutive games back in 1986-87. And the Thunder forward became the first player in league history under the age of 22 to string together 29-straight games of 25 or more points.

During that run, the Thunder posted a record of 20-9, with Durant averaging 32.4 points on 50.8% shooting from the field and a whopping 50% (51-for-102) from three-point range.

And through it all, Durant remained level-headed. He put his teammates first. He never spoke about the streak unless he was asked to. Even when he did talk about it, you could tell Durant shied from all the individual attention.

And of all the big-time buckets Durant made during that stretch, it’ll be hard to forget one in particular.

Remember the Thunder’s overtime win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden? Of course you do.

The Thunder needed a three-pointer to tie the game with 12.6 seconds left. Durant obliged.

With a sold-out crowd on its feet, more than 19,000 rabid New Yorkers, Durant delivered one of the most clutch shots of his young career. With a solid screen set by teammate Nick Collison, Durant curled off a high pick, caught a pass from Russell Westbrook at the top of the key, planted his feet, elevated and drilled the three-pointer to silence the crowd.

Durant was pumped. He was hopped up on adrenaline. And after he hit the shot he turned to the crowd, with a snarl on his face, and gave them a salute.

Durant looked like a man possessed, a man who was in that proverbial “zone,” one that seemed to stretch back to mid December.

Twenty-nine straight games – that scoring streak put Durant in some rare company.

—Team KD