A Winning Start to the Finals

The brief break ended, and both sides went to their rotation lineups.

Huh!

Goodwin had not expected Kevin Durant, who had played the entire first quarter, to remain on the court. He and James Harden came out with three reserves, while the Boston Celtics had gone completely to their bench.

Seeing this, Coach Jack looked at Goodwin as he had in the first quarter, as if asking whether he should go in.

Goodwin shook his head. He felt there was no need.

Kevin Durant was indeed formidable, but he had one weakness: his stamina was relatively ordinary.

This was the perfect opportunity to wear him down.

Without Goodwin defending him, Kevin Durant moved with complete ease on the court, like a fish in water.

First, he shook free of his defender with nimble off-ball movement and received a pass from James Harden.

Durant did not hesitate after catching the ball. He rose quickly, hung in the air for a moment, then decisively let it fly. The entire motion was smooth and seamless.

The ball traced a beautiful arc through the air and dropped cleanly through the hoop with a crisp swish.

Next, Kevin Durant posted up Gordon Hayward. Relying on his excellent technique and strength, he held off Hayward's defense, turned, and hit another jumper.

Then he displayed his incredible change-of-direction ability, easily getting past Gordon Hayward and charging all the way to the basket.

Facing help defense from The Diesel Shaquille O'Neal, he cleverly switched hands for the layup and scored.

In just two minutes, Kevin Durant led the team on a 6-2 run, cutting the deficit to four points.

That made Boston Celtics fans at the arena and in front of their TVs nervous, because they had not expected the other side to catch up so quickly.

However,