Mined from the notebooks, June 10, 2019. Posted Saturday, July 11, 2020.
"Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (35) reacts as he leaves the court after sustaining an injury during first-half basketball action against the Toronto Raptors in Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Toronto, Monday, June 10, 2019. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)". Via yahoo!sports.
A bulletin from the sports desk of the Department of In Search of Lost Time, June 10, 2019: One of the things I miss about basketball is the querulousness of ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy’s announcing.
Game 5 of the NBA finals tonight. Raptors came in up 3 games to 1. Looking like it was a she wrote for Golden State,all over but the shouting. But Kevin Durant was back, after a month on the DL, while his injured calf healed, and it was like he was never out. He scored 11 points in 12 minutes of play, which caused analyst Mark Jackson to observe that having Durant on the floor gave the other Warriors confidence. Jackson compared it to when he himself was a kid out on the street after dark with his big brother. He felt protected
Van Gundy said it was the opposite with him and his big brother, former Heat, Magic, and Pistons coach and current studio analyst for ESPN, Stan Van Gundy. If any trouble arose when he and Stan were out on the street, Jeff said, “I knew we were getting our asses kicked, no matter what.”
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Durant re-injured his calf before the half. First report is that it’s worse than the first time. Probably a tear in his Achilles tendon. But Steph took charge, playing 41 minutes and scoring 31 points. Klay Thompson had 26, and Draymond Green had 10 rebounds and 8 assists. DeMarcus Cousins, coming in off the bench to take over for Durant, scored 14. The Warriors went on to win what Kawhi Leonord turned into a very tight game, nearly wiping out Golden State’s 14 point lead by scoring 10 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter. Green saved it for the Warriors by getting his hand on what looked like a game-winning shot by Kyle Lowry in the final seconds. The final score was 107-106. So the Warriors have two more games to pull off their third championship in a row. I’m not hopeful.
To read the complete game story, follow the link to "How the Warriors Survived Game 5 of the N.B.A. Finals" by Marc Stein at the New York Times. For more details on Durant's injury, go over to yahoo!sports to read the AP story "Durant returns from injury _ then hurts his Achilles" by Tim Reynolds.
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