Keeping up with KD: The Streak

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

Is Everyone Ready for Christmas?!?!

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What’s going on everyone? It was another tough one for me and the team last night. We just have to get back to work and find a way to bounce back. Keep supporting us and sending us words of encouragement.

We’re getting close to Christmas. Has everyone gotten their Christmas shopping done yet? I’m about get on that.

The only person I got a gift for so far is my brother. We’re on this long road trip and we’ve got an off day today in L.A. so that’s probably when I’m going to do most of my shopping. I’ve never been a big Christmas shopper, not until I got into the league. I’ve got to shop for my mom, my grandmother and…I’ll leave the other one on the low. I’ve got to get something for my dad and my two close friends. I’m going to have one of my friends go with me and give me a little bit of flavor.

I’ve usually asked people what they want these last three years. People are like, ‘you don’t have to buy me anything, just give me some money.’ That’s the easiest thing I can do, I guess. But I want to go Christmas shopping so I can pick out some things I think my family would like, and I think that’s pretty cool. I like to go out and surprise my family, like my mom did for me. I’ve got a lot to make up for what she got me for Christmas but hopefully I get it done and it should be fun. It’s always fun going shopping for family. I know my mom’s style. She’s big on purses and boots and coats and stuff. I’ve got a lot to do.

I might get myself something. I’m going to start now. I may not get it until the end of this season or summer but it’s going to be my Christmas gift.

I already have a Christmas tree at my house, though. These ladies who help decorate some houses did it for me. Just the inside of my house is decorated. I don’t have any lights outside. It’s just a Christmas tree, some lights inside. It’s nice. I like the whole Christmas spirit. I missed it last season because I think we had to go to Detroit. Probably in the next couple of days we’re going to start putting some gifts under the tree. On Christmas Day we’ll have a big dinner. I think my grandma’s coming out, my dad, my little brother in high school will probably come out. We play the Bobcats the next day so I might invite D.J. Augustine over, my best friend in the league, so it should be a good little time. My guy Jimbo, he cooks for the whole team, so he might come over and cook a nice meal for us.

Oh, and I love Christmas music. I don’t know why but I just feel good when I have Christmas music on. That’s something I’ve always loved.

I have so many memories from Christmas from when I was a kid. I remember when I was eight, I woke up and there was no tree, nothing. Man, I cried the whole day. My mother said she couldn’t afford to give us Christmas. My grandmother came and picked us up and took us to the movies and said this was our Christmas present. I was like, dang. I went to my aunt’s house and that’s where all my Christmas presents were. So I love Christmas because I just like to see people happy, especially since we had some tough times growing up and a couple of my relatives passed away. It was always tough for us growing up. It was my mom, me and my brother and of course as a kid you wanted a lot of stuff and was kind of greedy. Sometimes we had Christmas, most of the time we did, but there were a couple of times we didn’t. I remember I used to always make my Christmas list right after Thanksgiving. I used to ask for games, a lot of Sega games. My mom brought my PlayStation for the first time, I remember that. I used to mainly get shoes, clothes and video games.

One of the coolest gifts I received was a Michael Jordan jersey. I was in eighth grade and he played for the Wizards, and I had some Timberland boots that matched. The Wizards had the brown in their jerseys and I had some tan boots and I was fresh going to school. Everybody was like, dang that’s a nice little outfit you got on. So that was probably one of the best.

What about you guys? What are some of the coolest Christmas gifts you have given or received? And do you all like Christmas music, too?

Merry Christmas everyone!

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