If Kevin Durant is having a great statistical game, don't expect him to attempt any halfcourt shots to end a quarter.
The NBA's leading scorer each of the last three seasons admits that he lets stats creep into his head before taking chances on such high-risk shots. Such shots can add up over the course of a season and can take a bite out of a player's final shooting percentage when all is said and done.
And Durant is aware of that.
"It depends on what I'm shooting from the field. First quarter if I'm 4-for-4, I let it go," Durant told DailyThunder.com. "Third quarter if I'm like 10-for-16, or 10-for-17, I might let it go. But if I'm like 8-for-19, I'm going to go ahead and dribble one more second and let that buzzer go off and then throw it up there. So it depends on how the game's going."
Such honesty from a player is rare, as caring for stats over a scoring opportunity (no matter how low percentage) is usually frowned upon by media and fans.
But it is probably not surprising that someone as competitive as Durant would factor in how everything he does on the court would affect his box score, especially when he looks across the league at the remarkable numbers his friend/rival LeBron James is putting up in Miami, which recently included a 31-point effort against Charlotte where James hit 13 of 14 shots from the floor.
But Durant's teammate and fellow All-Star in Oklahoma City couldn't care less when it comes to worrying about shot selection affecting his shooting percentage.
"No. Nope," Russell Westbrook told the website. "If I was considering about statistics, I'd do a lot of (explicit) different."
