The Nets aren’t getting a lot of positive press these days, and it’s mostly their own fault. This includes not doing anything about Kyrie Irving’s recent comments and social media posts, or not playing with the kind of fire they’re expected to have. Clearly, veteran Kevin Durant has blocked out the noise to have a nice start to his 16th NBA season.
Through Brooklyn’s first seven games of the year, KD is averaging 32.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.1 assists. He dropped another 36 on Monday night at home against the Indiana Pacers. It’s already the fifth time he’s scored more than 30 points in a night. The pace he’s on likely isn’t sustainable for a full year. However, his current 32.6-point average would be a new career-high mark if the season ended today.
Before thinking about how he can keep this going, though, it’s a worthy exercise to note how rare it is. Durant has scored at least 25 points in each of Brooklyn’s first seven games. He’s the first player in franchise history (NBA and ABA) to begin a year like that. At 34 years old, Durant is also the oldest player in NBA history to achieve this particular feat.
But that wasn’t all he did on Monday night. Those 36 points bring his career total to 25,754. He’s now ahead of Vince Carter for 19th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
Kevin Durant put an ❗ on his milestone night dropping 36 in the @BrooklynNets win as he moved into 19th all-time in scoring in NBA History! #NetsWorld@KDTrey5: 36 PTS, 9 REB, 7 AST pic.twitter.com/8wtJPzDXz8
— NBA (@NBA) November 1, 2022
It’s not every day that a team gets one of the sport’s all-time great scorers on the floor wearing their jersey. That’s what the Nets have. With Kevin Durant off to a hot start, it’d be great for Brooklyn to start winning games more consistently to take advantage of what the Slim Reaper is doing.
Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
