Kevin Durant Comments on Cursing at Dion Waiters During Game 2 vs. Warriors
Kevin Durant stated Friday that an expletive-laden rant directed toward Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Dion Waiters during the team's Game 2 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night was merely a joke.
Erik Horne of the Oklahoman passed along Durant's explanation of the incident, which came after he didn't receive a fast-break pass from Waiters. The team's leading scorer still ended up getting a bucket on the play, but the two bumped and had words while heading back to the bench.
"We always have those exchanges, man. We were laughing," Durant said. "If you walked into the huddle, the camera was in the huddle, you'd have seen us laughing and joking about it. But we go at it all the time."
The Cauldron highlighted the moment in question:
"Kevin Durant drops some profanities on Dion Waiters https://t.co/ZybCr8Lxgk
— The Cauldron (ICYMI) (@CauldronICYMI) May 19, 2016"
Durant admitted Waiters probably made the right decision on the play because the alley-oop would have been risky. He proceeded to call himself a "jerk" before jokingly providing some additional background info about the exchange, according to the Oklahoman.
"I don't want to tell on him, but you should have seen he cursed me out before I said something to him," Durant said. "But it's part of playing basketball. It's part of the brotherhood and having teammates that you really have fun playing with."
The explanation makes sense because Durant was smiling and laughing at the time. It didn't seem like legitimate tension between the teammates.
Ultimately, the Thunder have far bigger things to worry about heading into Game 3. The Warriors bounced back in impressive fashion after dropping the opener to blow out Oklahoma City 118-91 to level the series as it shifts to OKC.
A better performance from Waiters would go a long way toward helping the Thunder defend home-court advantage. He made just three of his 11 shots in Game 2. It was part of a lackluster performance from the team's supporting cast, with nobody besides Durant and Russell Westbrook reaching double figures.
The series is set to resume Sunday night.
