Kevin Durant continues to deliver in the postseason for the Golden State Warriors.
He scored 37 points on Monday night to lead the Warriors to a 119-106 win in the long-awaited showdown with the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
But if it were up to him, he would have done even more.
Durant wasn’t happy with coach Steve Kerr when he took him out in late in the third quarter and loudly asked his coach why he was putting him on the bench. Durant, who played just more than 40 minutes, was asked if he’d prefer to play the entire 48 minutes.
“Probably so,” Durant said.
Kerr acknowledged that he should have left him in at that point and raved about his performance after his fourth 30-point game this postseason.
“This is why anybody would want him on their team … I don’t know what you do to guard him,” Kerr said. “He can get any shot he wants.”
Starting a playoff series on the road for the first time since 2014, the Warriors trailed by as many as 9 early, but had evened it up by halftime and used a big run at the beginning of the fourth quarter to pull away.
“We’re in the Western Conference finals they are going to come out with a lot of energy,” Durant said. “We’re going to take that first punch and keep punching.”
Game 2 is Wednesday night in Houston.
McCutchen gets 1,500th hit in Giants’ win
Andrew McCutchen saw no reason to dwell on his 1,500th hit because he hopes to add many more.
McCutchen doubled in his first two at-bats to reach the career milestone and the San Francisco Giants snapped the Cincinnati Reds’ six-game winning streak with a 10-7 victory Monday night.
“It’s not a big deal because I don’t want to stop at 1,500,” McCutchen said. “It’s just another hit and hopefully I can keep going and get 1,500 more.”
McCutchen sparked a three-run first inning against Sal Romano (2-4) with his first hit and drove home a run in the second with another double. Kelby Tomlinson added a two-run single in the third and Brandon Belt homered and knocked in three runs to give the Giants consecutive wins following a six-game skid.
Tucker Barnhart homered and had three RBIs, Scott Schebler hit a solo shot and Adam Duvall added a three-run homer but the Reds failed to move out of last place in the National League because of a rough start by Romano.
“I thought I threw some pretty good off-speed pitches, but I just never got in that flow,” Romano said. “I’ve got to be able to bear down and get guys out with two outs. I allowed a lot of two-out hits and then obviously in the third inning with the one-out hits. Just wasn’t sharp.”
The right-hander put Cincinnati in an early hole when Evan Longoria drove in McCutchen with a two-out single in the first and Brandon Crawford added a two-run double.
McCutchen drove in a run with a two-out hit in the second as the Giants scored three of their first four runs after there were two outs.
A’s hit 3 solo homers
Sean Manaea beat the Boston Red Sox again in his first outing against them since pitching a no-hitter, and Khris Davis hit one of three solo homers by the Oakland Athletics in a 6-5 victory Monday night.
Matt Joyce and Matt Olson also went deep for the A’s, who had lost five of six to the Astros and Yankees. Davis connected for his team-leading 12th home run as Oakland handed Rick Porcello his first loss of the season.
J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers each hit a solo shot for the Red Sox.
Manaea (5-4) allowed four runs — three earned — and eight hits in six-plus innings, snapping his two-game skid. He threw the seventh no-hitter in Oakland history at home against the Red Sox on April 21.
