On March 4, Beijing time, when Durant returned after 47 days, he shouldered the heavy responsibility of leading the team to challenge the first Heat in the East. Durant in the comeback battle, he performed heroically in the first half to score a team-high 17 points, and continued to perform well in the second half, and ushered in two milestones, one is to achieve at least 7,000 free throw milestones in the regular season of his career, and the other is to surpass the Hall of Fame legend Petit to 18th place in history, and also win the crazy cheers of home fans.
Durant has missed 21 consecutive games since he was injured on January 16, during which the Nets completely "collapsed", not only creating a 11-game losing streak, but also having only a 5-16 record, causing them to plummet to 8th in the East and facing the danger of playing play-offs.
Now that Durant is finally coming back, he said before the game, "I feel full of energy, I know what I can do now, I know how to help this team." Durant also stressed, "It is very difficult to use performance on the court to make the noise of the outside world disappear." ”
Durant's comeback was to meet the Heat of the East, losing both of the first two meetings of the season, and Durant only played in one of them. Durant played extremely hard in the comeback battle this time, especially focusing on the killing of the Heat defense, continuing to score and lead the team to maintain the lead, and his performance of winning free throws with the help of killing injuries also ushered in two milestone records.
First, Durant's career regular season free throw number exceeded the 7,000-time milestone mark, and he became the 31st player in NBA history to achieve such a feat, the previous being Reggie Miller's 7,026 free throws. As for the active players, Durant is the fifth player to reach 7000 free throws, the top four are James 10585 free throws, Howard 9401 free throws, Harden 8038 free throws, Anthony 7733 free throws.
Second, Durant hit at least 6,183 free throws, surpassing Hall of Fame legend Petit with 6,182 free throws to rise to 18th all-time, with Reggie Miller hitting 6,237 free throws. Durant ranks fourth in active range of free throws, behind James with 7,769 free throws, Harden with 6,904 free throws and Anthony with 6,295.
(Drunken Lying Floating Life)