National Basketball Association

Kevin Durant's dazzling Game 5 was a show worthy of the NBA's greatest player

Updated Jun. 16, 2021 3:28 p.m. ET

By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer

NEW YORK – Kevin Durant couldn’t remember when exactly the conversation took place. Maybe late in the third quarter. Maybe early in the fourth. It was sometime late in the second half, though.

He was in the midst of carving up the Milwaukee Bucks’ defense. Splashing 3-pointers over defenders. Splitting double-teams. Firing darts to open teammates. The Brooklyn Nets had trailed by 16 at halftime. But now, thanks to Durant, they were clawing their way back.

Durant, though, had yet to be given a rest, relying on dead balls and timeouts to catch his breath. Nets coach Steve Nash had tried finding breaks for him. But the flow of the game seemed to always get in the way. Kyrie Irving was out with an ankle sprain. And James Harden, back on the floor for the first time since tweaking his right hamstring in the first minute of the series, was hobbled, rarely probing, barely attacking. Joe Harris, normally a reliable sharpshooter, couldn’t find his shot. Durant was all the Nets had, the one thing standing between them and an epic collapse that could trigger a wave of offseason questions and reckoning.

"It’s not ideal," Nash would say later of playing Durant the entire game. "But if we didn’t play him 48 minutes, we probably weren’t winning tonight."

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Nash knew Durant’s age (32) and history. He knew them better than most. He was a consultant for the Golden State Warriors and a workout partner for Durant when the star ruptured his Achilles during the 2019 Finals, an injury that sidelined him for more than a year. But Nash also knew that if the Nets were going to pull off the comeback, they’d likely need Durant out on the floor for every minute of the game.

So he and Jacque Vaughn, his lead assistant, approached him, and that's when the conversation happened.

"If you don't need to take me out, I can do this," Durant later recalled telling them.

Nash listened, and Durant rewarded him with a 49-point, 17-rebound, 10-assist performance, drilling 16 of his 23 shots and adding three steals and two blocks. He became the first player in NBA history to record at least 45 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in a playoff game.

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The end result was a 114-108 Nets victory in front of a raucous home crowd, giving them a 3-2 series lead and pulling them within one win of the Eastern Conference finals.

"Historic, historic performance" is how Nash described it afterward, adding: "It’s ridiculous what he’s able to do."

It’d be hard to find someone who disagrees. It’s not just the raw video game numbers. It’s the way Durant is able to stand above even the greatest of his peers, how he’s able to leave one of the league’s premier teams and one of its premier players – a man who is bigger and stronger and faster than a league full of super strong and super fast giants – feeling helpless.

We saw this in the second half against the Bucks, as Durant scored or assisted on 43 of the Nets’ final 52 points and racked up 20 points in the fourth quarter. We saw this in the decision from the Nets, a team that preaches ball movement and player movement, to reduce their offense to the most simple of basketball schemes: Hand the ball to Durant at the top of the key, spread the floor and give him a screen. And the Bucks had no answer.

"He's the best player in the world right now," Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who scored 34 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, said.

A two-time MVP handing that label to an opponent means something. It’s also something Durant has long craved. Three years ago, his father, Wayne Pratt, told ESPN’s Zach Lowe that Durant was "chasing validation" and, according to Lowe, "not from Twitter critics but from superstar peers."

Durant has that now.

Although he wasn’t in a celebrating mood after the game ("We got our work cut out for us in Game 6," he said. "That’s going to be the toughest game of the year.") and while it’s anyone’s guess how this series will play out (does Durant have anything left? Will Harden have anything to offer? Can the Nets win in Milwaukee for the first time this season? How will the Bucks respond? Can the Nets win if Durant doesn’t play at this level?), he should take solace knowing that he has finally reached that mountaintop.

He’s the best player in the world, a giant among giants, an all-time great who does things on the court that leave us — and his peers — in awe. The Nets have three superstars, and the Bucks have one, yet five games into this series, it’s Durant standing tallest amongst them.

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.