Durant Sets Team USA Scoring Record
There are a million reasons why you would have expected Kevin Durant to struggle in the 2012 Olympics. For starters, he was coming off the biggest disappointment in his basketball career, a 4-1 loss to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. He was tired, he was beaten up, he was dejected. Durant was forced to go from being the primary option and No. 1 guy to being the third-fiddle in an offense and sometimes the fourth option (despite always being at least the second best player on the floor at all times). And he had to be a spot-up, catch-and-shoot scorer instead of an off-the-dribble player.
Oh, and he had to play power forward at times, and play a dramatically different style of defense. That, too.
So you could understand why Durant wouldn’t have the best Olympics ever.
Except, one thing. He did have the best Olympics ever. At least on the scoreboard, by an American.
Durant scored the most points in a single Olympics for a U.S. player with 156, including a scorching 30-points performance in the gold medal win over Spain. He blistered defenses from the perimeter time and time again, and just when you’d think he couldn’t hit another one, he’d nail his heat check, too.
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