Kevin Durant is the most valuable player in these playoffs.

Ordinarily it would be foolish to make sweeping generalizations based on one day in one building … but with half the remaining NBA participants in action inside Staples Center on Saturday, I’m confident in these proclamations: The San Antonio Spurs are the best team, and Oklahoma City’s Durant is the best player.

You can’t ask a guy to do more to deliver a playoff victory than Durant did down the stretch in the Thunder’s 103-100 Game 4 victory that gave them a 3-1 lead in the series against the Lakers. He guarded Kobe Bryant while Bryant was in the process of missing eight of nine fourth-quarter shots (that doesn’t count the meaningless last-second shot that went in). For the game, Bryant shot 0-for-4 with Durant guarding him.

Durant came up with his second big steal of the series, this time when Pau Gasol ignored an open shot and made a pass that disappointed Mike Brown and infuriated Bryant. He hit a baseline jumper to tie the game and a 3-pointer to put the Thunder up for good with 13.7 seconds remaining.

via J.A. Adande of ESPN