The Boston Celtics have the best defense in the NBA, and they’ve managed to stymie Kevin Durant through the first three games of the season.
In fact, the Celtics have done such a good job against Durant that the former MVP admitted he’s “thinking too much” about how to counter the defense, leading to his disappointing 16-point performance in the Nets’ Game 3 loss.
Durant shot 54.5% from the floor in Game 3, a marked improvement from the first two games of the series. However, he took only 11 shots. He averaged 20.3 attempts per game this season, and had 11 or fewer attempts in a game just four times this season — all Nets wins in which he didn’t need to put up more shots.
After the game, Durant explained he’s overthinking his approach. Durant believed he had forced shots in the first two games, so he wanted to distribute the ball more and let the game come to him. Unfortunately for the Nets, that didn’t happen.
Via ESPN:
“I feel like the first two games I was trying to be too aggressive,” Durant said. “A team that’s loading up on me, that’s trying to take me out of all my actions. I felt like I was still trying to force the first two games and watching film, a lot of my teammates were open and they were knocking down shots, so I felt my approach to this game was to play off of everybody — get in the flow of the offense and let the ball move and find me.”
Trying to make the right play is admirable, but Kevin Durant can’t be as passive during the rest of the series. When you’re regarded as one of the best players in the world, it’s better to be eliminated despite shooting 30 or 40 times than it is to go out quietly.