KEVIN DURANT SCORED a playoff career high 50 points as the Golden State Warriors blasted their way into the second round of the NBA playoffs by clobbering the Los Angeles Clippers 129-110 on Friday.
Durant made history by equalling the most points scored in the first half of a playoff game with 38 of his 50 coming in the opening half. He tied former Phoenix Sun star Charles Barkley who scored 38 of his 56 points in the first half of a series clinching win over Golden State 25 years ago.
“That was one of the great performances I’ve ever seen in my life,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s the ultimate weapon because there’s no defense for Kevin.”
Durant was at a loss to explain his masterful performance on Friday.
“I am just out there playing. I was so lost in the game I am not really thinking about anything else but winning the possession. It is tough to explain. I am just in it,” he said.
The Warriors advance to face the Houston Rockets, beginning on Sunday in Oakland. Houston was already in Oakland waiting for the Warriors to finish the series so they can start the second round on Sunday.
Durant said the Rockets are going to be a whole new challenge.
“They are a talented ball club with a lot of high IQ players that shoot well and penetrate well so we got our work cut out for us,” he said.
Draymond Green had 16 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists, Stephen Curry scored 24 points and Andre Iguodala contributed 15 points off the bench for the Warriors, who won three road playoff games in the same series for first time in franchise history.
The Warriors put the brakes on Clipper reserves Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell, who had done so much damage against them in the two Clippers victories. The pair came in leading Los Angeles in scoring during the series at 24.4 and 20 points, respectively.
Williams scored eight points on a horrific three-for-21 shooting, and Harrell was limited to just 10 points.
‘We didn’t roll over’
“He’s Kevin Durant. We didn’t roll over. We didn’t just say, come on, just give us 50 tonight,” said Clippers Patrick Beverley.
He’s a hell of a player. The shots he took, he made some tough shots.”
Williams described Durant as “a special” player who is unguardable when he is on his game.
“Sometimes you come across special people and it doesn’t matter what you send to them,” Williams said. “There’s no scheme. There’s nothing you can do.
“We tried everything. It didn’t work.
Even the game he came out, he was like ‘I’m Kevin Durant, you all know who I am’. That’s a bold statement to make when you are going to see some guys who are extremely competitive.
“It wasn’t a lack of effort on our part. He’s an all-world professional and he proved it.”
Danilo Gallinari had 29 points, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 22 and Beverley finished with 11 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists in the loss.
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Great save by Kelleher near the end. Comfortable afternoon for him
Top player.
Super performance and result albeit against a woeful Watford. Unlikely to be a worse performance by any PL team this season. Salah is unbelievable and his goal was magical, give him the contract his performances and goals deserve. Great to see Firmino scoring. Though Kelleher had nothing to do he kept his concentration to make a very good save at the end. Gonna be a tight title race. Surprised Salah and Mane played the 90 minutes, Minamino could have done with game time especially against that Watford team.
Mo Salah is WOW!!! a pleasure to watch him…..Firmino not bad either : )
Time to sack Ranieri…….
@John S: dilly ding dilly dong
@Heckler davies: dilly ding, dilly gone
Class win and 3 more handy points. We will be hard to stop This season as we put last seasons blip behind us
Danny Rose will sleep tonight. Great performance against an albeit poor side!!
Give Mo all the money. Almost 0% chance of being able to replace him
Lewandowski and Salah are the best players in the world on current form.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a PL side as bad as that Watford side today….if they lost 10-0 it wouldn’t have been a surprise! Woeful…
@Ottomaaan: you forgot to mention that they were up against a solid side with a rampant front three, there, I fixed it for you…. :)
@Gordon Larney: no need to fix anything. That was the worst performance I’ve ever seen from a PL side, dreadful stuff and Liverpool could have put 10 past them.
@Ottomaaan: have to agree. I was at the game and never seen such a bad performance from a PL team.
Salah in great form. But how long canhe hold that form? He has 20-25 goals in him a season, but he’s up and down. If he held this form, he’d be close to 40 goals?
Bigger tests against Athletico and United on the way.
@Finn Faulkner: did you like your own comment…
@Finn Faulkner: how long can he do that. ? He has been doing it for the last 4 seasons. 104 goals in 166 games in the Premier league but you think he should score more. Okay so
@Finn Faulkner: you’re gonna need bigger bait on that hook ….
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: But by that metric 4 seasons at 40 goals would be 160 goals. He hasn t done that. But my point is that if he can keep that killer hat on his head for a prolonged period, and with our squad almost injury free, he could break records for us. I’m HOPING he keeps this lethal form indefinitely. He still can’t be put in the Messi/Ronaldo category until he starts being seriously clinical. I’d love to see him win the Balloon d’Or this year (or the next)
@len len: No, but seeing as you need likes, here, have mine. Have a lovely day.
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: you included his Chelsea stats there, it’s 102 in 153 for Liverpool
@Shane Roche: It’s still an amazing number of goals per season, but I think he can go even further, he needs to keep this current form. Biggest tests are against Athletico and then United.
That salah. Goal was pure roy of the rovers.. Pure art.. He must be a great dancer..
As good as Liverpool are, and they are really good. This in my opinion is all about Klopp.