Warrior Wonder: Kevin Durant stepped up in the fourth quarter of the All-Star Game

As Golden State Warriors fans have seen him do throughout the regular season, superstar Kevin Durant had some of his best moments when his team needed a boost in the 2018 NBA All-Star Game.

Durant finished with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists, but it was his fadeaway jumper over Klay Thompson with 3:51 left in the fourth and assist to former teammate Russell Westbrook that garnered the most attention.

Yet what you might not see in Durant’s highlight reel was his role in the final defensive stand against Warriors teammate Stephen Curry that was probably most significant as it sealed the deal on a 148-145 win for Team LeBron. You’ll note that Durant not only contributed to the trap of Curry, but rotated over to make any final shot impossible after Curry passed it away.

During his post-game interview, Durant told jokingly patted himself on the back for the defensive play and played along with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols suggested that he hang a photo of the play up in the Warriors’ practice facility, but ultimately said there’ll be no trash talk because it was a great game yada yada.

Klay Thompson’s hot first half

While Durant was somewhat quietly racking up numbers in the first half, Klay Thompson carried the banner for the Warriors, scoring a game-high 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the 3-point line to help Team Steph take a 78-76 lead at halftime.

Not bad for a guy that doesn’t seem to understand how team pictures work.

Twitter actually had a lot of jokes for Klay Thompson during the 2018 NBA All-Star Game last night. Yes, he did struggle near the end of the first half when Team LeBron threw a trap at him, but can you really blame him? You’d probably be caught off guard by defense being played in the All-Star Game too.

But please save your ridiculous jokes about how he’s a glorified Jason Kapono or deer in headlights.