Kevin Durant is one of the best scorers in the league. He is widely regarded as a player who can effectively create his own shot in isolation against almost any defender in the league. Over the course of the regular season, Kevin Durant averaged 29.9 PPG, 7.4 RPG, and 6.4 APG.
Despite his outstanding regular season, Kevin Durant has struggled in the playoffs thus far. He is only averaging 25.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, and 4.0 APG over the first 2 games of his series against the Celtics while shooting a poor 31.7% from the field and 28.6% from beyond the arc.
Even though many have given up on the Brooklyn Nets and Kevin Durant, legend Shaquille O’Neal has expressed confidence in Kevin Durant, claiming that a “prolific scorer” like him will “never” be truly shut down by a defense.
.@SHAQ is confident in KD.
"When you’re a prolific scorer like Kevin Durant, the defense never shuts you down." pic.twitter.com/DRL2hQ2Bd3
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 21, 2022
When you’re a prolific scorer like Kevin Durant, the defense never shuts you down. It can throw a lot of things at you… that’s the mentality we have… Another way we think, is that we never want to have two bad games in a row.
Listen, he’s a scorer, he’s a shooter. I could never give him advice… I’m sure his mentality is I just didn’t make shots, not oh, the defense stopped me.
Generally, superstars can be bothered by defenses in the playoffs, but they will also find ways to persevere and perform well despite the schemes the opposing team throws at them. Kevin Durant is a superstar, so hopefully, he does the same thing and leads the Brooklyn Nets to win over the Boston Celtics in Game 3.
A lot of people view Kevin Durant as the best player in the world currently, and if there’s any time to show that, it would be now. Kevin Durant has shown that he can get it done on the biggest stage, so perhaps we’ll see an elite performance from him in the near future against the Celtics.
