"He went out there and sacrificed his body."

Kevin Durant, Part 2: They questioned a warrior, now they'll question the Warriors

BY HENRY ABBOTT

The Warriors held a five-point lead early in the second quarter of Monday’s win-or-go-home Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Stephen Curry was on the bench—it was Kevin Durant’s time. He brought the ball up, peeled Pascal Siakam away on an Andrew Bogut screen, and tacked right to operate on Serge Ibaka. It was almost the same spot on the floor where Durant’s playoffs had stopped, a month earlier against Houston, with an injury to the lower right leg.

So much is unfair about Durant. He’s bigger than everyone who can move like him, faster and more skilled than everyone as tall. He started a move against Ibaka, then simply stopped playing. Ibaka scooped up the ball, ran the length of the floor, and got fouled as Durant sat on the floor, fiddling with his tortured right lower leg.

It felt like an eternity, but in reality was precisely one minute before Durant hobbled off the court with an arm draped over the shoulder of doctor Rick Celebrini and screamed “FUCK” in a way the broadcas…