Reviewing Durant's streak
Kevin Durant’s 25-point scoring streak came to an end Wednesday night in San Antonio.
It was simply a matter of time.
Streaks of any kind — winning streaks, hitting streaks, consecutive games played streaks, or in this case scoring 25 or more points in 29 consecutive games — are remarkable simply because one injury or one off night can end the streak.
Bottom line is Kevin Durant was red hot for two months. During the streak, Durant shot 50.8 percent from the field, 50 percent on 102 3-point attempts, 88.7 from the line.
That last stat is the primary reason only Michael Jordan has compiled a longer 25-point streak the past 35 years. Durant has learned getting to the line are easy points, especially for someone who shoots nearly 90 percent at the charity stripe.
During the streak, Durant averaged almost 11 free throw attempts a game. Averaging double digit free throw attempts is evidence how Durant has taken his game to another level, especially compared to his rookie season when he often settled for jump shots.
Oklahoma City was 20-9 during the streak. Besides providing consistent offense for the Thunder, Durant also averaged 7.9 rebounds and continues to play much improved defense.
Because it was so rare, Durant’s scoring streak will be one of the highlights from the 2009-10 NBA season.
Athletes are praised for amazing feats. But the great ones are consistent night in, night out, game in, game out. At age 21, Durant put together a streak that has many throwing the Washington, D.C. product into the discussion of top players in the league.
Durant streak highlights:
* Averaged 32.4 points
* Scored 30 or more points in 23 of 29 games
* Averaged 20.5 FG attempts a game
* Scored exactly 25 points twice
* Averaged 11.0 FT attempts a game
* Shot 50.8 percent, 50.0 percent on 3-pointers
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Comments
Yeah, it’s an advantage that others have to be able to crunch numbers on Durant’s stats during the streak while I spent most of the day flying back from San Antonio, then turning in items for Friday’s paper before I had an opportunity to finally crunch the numbers.
Kudos to Air Thunder.
That’s the tradeoff the newspaper guy has because we actually attend the games and get post-game reaction quotes after Darnell or I write stories after all 82 games, which included quotes from Durant an hour after the game on how he felt about the streak after it ended.
Once I landed back in OKC late Thursday afternoon, I had to wrote notes and a smaller story on Durant’s streak broken down in addition to updating Ibaka, Collison, etc.
Again, kudos to Air Thunder. Our No. 1 focus is covering all 82 games with post-game coverage, indepth previews and analysis and when we finally have a chance, crunch numbers like Durant’s streak.
I liked this better when Daily Thunder did it five hours ago.
http://www.dailythunder.com/2010/02/kevin-durant-by-the-numbers-during-the-streak/