If there’s any player who can come across with such humility after stepping to the forefront in one of the most pressure-cooker situations of his young career, it was Kevin Durant.

“I just wanted to be that guy,” KD told TNT shortly after he helped will the Thunder to the franchise’s first playoff series victory with a 100-97 Game 5 win over the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night.

Durant was that guy and then some in the series clincher, especially in the fourth quarter when he scored 16 of his team’s final 20 points to help rally the Thunder from a nine-point deficit with three minutes to play. One basket in particular prompted TNT studio analyst Charles Barkley to say that “only God” could stop a player with the size, agility and talent as Durant. It sure seemed like it in Game 5.

Durant’s memorable fourth quarter included a pretty assist out of a double team to James Harden, who drilled a three-pointer to tie the game and further stymied the Nuggets’ plan of attack against KD.

“We tried to double on the pick-and-rolls, but it was mostly one-on-one,” Denver coach George Karl said. “I think when (James) Harden made that 3 to tie it, it took our confidence from doubling a little bit. (Durant) made some pretty difficult shots.”

More out of KD: there was a clutch three-point play after finishing strong in the lane with contact. He provided the icing as well, swishing a dribble pull-up from the top of the key with five seconds to go on the shot clock that gave the Thunder a three-point lead with 12 seconds to go. And for good measure, KD blocked J.R. Smith’s attempt to tie the game just three seconds left.

After KD made that play, he pumped his fists in the air and scowled in affirmation, putting his emotions out there for all to see just like he always does. Emotions raw, passion and desire to win unbridled. That’s KD.

This was Durant’s second 41-point game of the series, as the league’s two-time regular season scoring leader reached that mark in Game 1.

And KD did it on 14-for-27 shooting to go with five rebounds, two assists, a steal, two blocks and zero turnovers. Those zero turnovers might have been the most underrated stat of the night in game in which the Thunder committed 14 turnovers.

Cutting back on turnovers has been a goal of Durant’s since the season’s onset and the two-time All-Star forward has shown progress in that area throughout his second postseason. In last year’s first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers, Durant committed 3.67 turnovers a game. In five games against Denver in this year’s opening round, he averaged just 1.4 a game.

It was about as dominant and complete of a performance as we’ve seen from Durant this season. KD said teammates Royal Ivey and Nate Robinson were blunt with him on the bench.

“Go take the game over. It’s your time,’” Durant recalled them saying. “My teammates did a great job of finding me in the right spots so I could make some shots…. Russell looked at me and said, ‘This is what you do.’”

If you want to judge KD on progress, then look no further than last year’s playoff stats compared to this year’s.

A year ago, Durant averaged 25 points on 35 percent shooting, 7.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists in six games against the Lakers.

This season, with another year of experience under him and fresh off one of his busiest summers, one in which he led USA Basketball to a gold medal at the World Championship, Durant has only gotten better as the season has wore on.

In five games against the Nuggets, he averaged 32.4 points on 47.1 percent shooting, 5.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.0 steals.

He showed why he’s a two-time All-Star and has led the league in scoring in consecutive seasons. He showed why he’s continued to evolve into one of the game’s elite players. And he picked up right where he left off from the end of the regular season, when he was named the Western Conference Player of the Month yet again.

Moving forward, all we know for sure is we’ll be treated to yet another playoff round of watching Kevin Durant mature on the game’s biggest stage. And if you’re a fan, you couldn’t ask for more.

What’s good everyone? We’re in Denver for our game against the Nuggets tonight. We had a tough loss against LeBron and the Cavs last night. It would have been good to get that one at home, but now it’s time to move on to the next one.

College hoops is back in full swing, so how about we talk about some college hoops today?

Don’t tell Russell this, but I always wanted to go to UCLA. I don’t know why. I always wanted to go to UCLA. That was a dream of mine. And once I started to get recruited, I was like, I hope UCLA calls. That’s where I wanted to go. But it didn’t turn out that way because they didn’t think I’d go all the way to the West Coast. But that’s the school I always liked. I liked watching them. I liked their colors. That kind of drew me to them as well. I was a big UCLA fan — the O’Bannons, Baron Davis, Earl Watson; I was a big Earl Watson fan, believe it or not.

Growing up near D.C., my godfather’s brother used to work at the MCI Center (now the Verizon Center), where Georgetown played their home games. He would get us $10 tickets to see Georgetown play, and I would go a lot when I was in high school. I would go to any game no matter if they were playing Coastal Carolina or Pittsburgh. I just liked to watch. That’s where I started to see the different type of players develop into what we have now in the NBA, so that was good to go back then and kind of get a dose of the game and learn different parts of the game.

Now, with me and my Thunder teammates, since a lot of us aren’t too removed from college, we like to have bragging rights. I think my team is doing the best out of everybody so far. We’re number 2 in the country. Actually Nick’s team is doing the best, Kansas, they’re Number 1, we’re Number 2 and I think we’re going to have a battle at the end of the year, Kansas versus Texas at the end of the year, so we’ll see how that turns out.

I think the biggest surprise this season is UCLA not doing as good as they usually do, so we get to talk trash to Russ a little bit.

As far as Texas goes, my Longhorns are talented. I spent all summer there working with those guys. This is the most talented team that we’ve had at Texas and I’ve watched teams before that went to the Final Four and the Elite Eight, and this is the most talented team there. It’s just a matter of them putting everything together. They’re such a good team and they can do a lot on the floor. The chemistry is there, they just have to get the experience. These first couple of games is where the young guys start to feel their way around and see how they need to play and the difference between high school and college, so it looks like they’re going to be pretty good.

Look out for Avery Bradley. He’s a freshman that’s pretty good. So is our center Dexter Pittman. We’ve also got a guy from Turkey named Dogus Balbay, who’s pretty good. I like his game a lot. And Damion James is kind of like the heart and soul, our leader. They’ve been playing very well. They’ve got a tough test coming up against North Carolina, so we’re going to see how they fare out there.

I’m also a big fan of John Wall…a big fan! I had the privilege to watch him in the Jordan Classic last year after the season. He was such a humble kid, always talked about getting better and always put his teammates first. And that’s what I liked, especially at a young age. Seventeen, 18 year old kids always thinking about ‘all me’ and ‘I need to score’ and ‘I need to do this’ but he was always team first and very humble and that’s going to bring him a long way. He’s talented, man. I’m in love with his game.

As far as who else impresses me in college basketball, I’m a big guy on being versatile, so I’m a big Evan Turner fan. He’s a 6-7 point guard for Ohio State. I like his game, but he’s hurt. He’s had two triple doubles this season already. He hurt his back so he’s out for a while but he’s been putting up numbers, I think averaging a double-double with six assists. That’s rare in college but I like his game.

In terms of teams, Kentucky’s good, of course. North Carolina’s got a young team. Kansas is pretty good. Cole Aldridge, I think, is probably the best young center in the country. There’s a couple good teams out there. You also can’t forget about the sleepers like Butler, Western Kentucky and teams like that.

Lately I’ve been following John Wall’s schedule because they play on TV a lot. I call it “The John Wall Show.” That’s the only team that I’ve really watched a lot. I haven’t really gotten a chance to see my Horns play on TV because we’ve maybe games and practice whenever they’re on, but of course I’m going to follow Texas. But every time John Wall’s on TV I make sure I tune in.

Man, I can talk about college basketball all day! So who are your favorite college teams and players? Who should I look out for this season? And who do you guys think are good enough to be National Champs? Let me know in the comments section.

Also, make sure to watch us take on Melo and the Nuggets tonight in Denver. I’ll be back with more posts later this week.

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