Kevin Durant: “I’m not going to go out there and shoot 20, 30 shots. I don’t play like that.” pic.twitter.com/jWafBVmXnG
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 17, 2019
Once again, Kevin Durant had an interesting session with the media during Wednesday’s shoot around in Oakland. The topic de jour was KD’s aggressiveness, or lack thereof in Monday’s shocking Game 2 loss. Durant shot the ball just eight times in 34 minutes and turned the ball over nine times.
After the game Steve Kerr said that Durant had a rough night. On Wednesday, Kerr said Durant needs to be significantly more aggressive moving forward.
“Look, the guy is the most skilled basketball player on planet Earth,” Kerr said. “There’s nobody who can do what he can do. It’s the playoffs, defenses are more locked in. They play everybody tougher. I don’t know how many shots he got the other night. Seven? Eight? Absolutely he needs to be more aggressive. It’s the playoffs and he can get any shot he wants at any time. So I want to see him get 20 shots, 30.”
This message was relayed to Durant a few moments later. The two-time MVP didn’t agree.
“I’m not going to go out there and just shoot 20 or 30 shots. I don’t play like that. We were up 30 points and I had five shots. Everybody’s shots were kind of evenly distributed around that time when we were up 30. Me taking two more shots after that wasn’t the reason why we lost.”
This isn’t the first time Durant has disagreed with Kerr in a public setting this season. In March, KD took issue with Kerr saying that the Warriors need to play with more anger.
Kevin Durant asked about Kerr saying the team needed to play with more anger: “I thought we moved off joy. Now anger? I disagree with that one.” pic.twitter.com/M7o4nFDori
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 6, 2019
Later on during Wednesday’s session, Durant also broke down in extreme detail the way the Clippers have defended him this series.
“They’re playing a gimmick defense, which has been working, top-locking everything on the perimeter, so guys aren’t even looking at the 3-point line, forcing guys inside 3-point line. So, for us, when I get the ball in my spots, I got a pest, Patrick Beverley, who is up underneath me. Well, I could definitely shoot up over the top and score on every time if it’s a 1-on-1 situation. But we got a guy who is dropping and helping. Then we got another guy that’s just sitting on me waiting for me to dribble the basketball.”
“If I put the basketball on the floor, I could probably make 43 percent of my shots if I shoot them like that. But that’s not really going to do nothing for us with the outcome of the game. Because we got a nice flow, everyone touching the rock, everyone shooting and scoring. I’m not going to get in the way of the game because I want to have a little back and forth with Patrick Beverley. I’m Kevin Durant. You know who I am. Y’all know who I am.”