Kurtenbach: Kevin Durant is on another level — to beat Houston, the Warriors need to up their game, too

Kevin Durant's torrid scoring run carried the Warriors to the second round — it won't be able to beat the Rockets singlehandedly, though.

LOS ANGELES — A week ago, after a Game 2 to forget, Kevin Durant issued a reminder.

“I’m Kevin Durant,” he said. “You know who I am.”

Don’t perceive that statement as egotistical — no, it was just arguably the greatest scorer in the history of the NBA’s brief way of stating the overt truth that he could do whatever he wanted on the basketball court, night in, night out.

Since then, Durant has issued a few more reminders of that fact. He scored 38 points in Game 3 and followed it with a 33-point performance to give the Warriors a 3-1 lead in the series.

Then, in Game 5, he set a personal playoff high with 45 points.

But Friday, he took it to another level, authoring one of the single greatest offensive games in NBA playoff history — a masterpiece in the art of scoring — dropping 50 points (38 in the first half) to lead the Warriors to a 129-111 Game 6 win and a series victory over the Clippers.

How do you explain such brilliance? Such dominance?

Simply:

“I mean, he’s Kevin Durant,” Clippers guard Patrick Beverley said.

The Clippers played an admirable series against the Warriors. Before they bowed out in a 129-111 loss Friday, they pushed Golden State to six games — at least one and probably two contests more than the first-round series should have gone.

They didn’t lose because of effort, connectivity, or tactics. They lost because they couldn’t stop Kevin Durant, the best player in the world right now.

“I promise we tried,” Lou Williams said. “We tried everything.”

“It didn’t work”, said Beverley.

The Warriors made some long overdue adjustments in Game 6. They brought energy on defense, led by Draymond Green and the impeccable (at least in Game 6) Klay Thompson. Andrew Bogut found the bench to start the game, a counter to LA’s small ball lineups. The Warriors started to run their offense “downhill” and used high screens and smaller personnel to create more space.

But the difference in this series was Durant.

He started the series as a facilitator — a secondary option inside a system built for Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson — but over the last week, he has locked in. Scratch that — he has ascended.

And he’s left no doubt as to who the best player on the court is — no matter what court he is on.

But he can’t go back to being second fiddle now.

What Durant has given the Warriors is transcendent. And against the Houston Rockets, they’re going to need much more of it.

This long foreseen showdown with the Rockets starts Sunday afternoon, leaving the Warriors next to no time to recover from a series that extracted a toll on them.

Tactically speaking, the Warriors should be fine with the short turnaround — Houston doesn’t exactly have a prodigious playbook.

“We know them well. We kind of know what they’re going to do. They don’t make you think too much about what they’re going to do. They let you know. They’re going to come after you and pick-and-roll. We played them three times in the playoffs the last four years,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Friday.

But the state of the Warriors roster should be of concern.

This second round series could well be defined by injury. Curry twisted his ankle twice in the first round, including a big tweak in Game 6. Thompson picked up a limp with an ankle twist of his own in Game 6, too. Draymond Green’s barking right wrist has certainly had something to do with an 0-for-11 shooting run from behind the arc. Oh, and lest we forget that the Warriors lost DeMarcus Cousins for the rest of the playoffs in Game 2.

Meanwhile, the Rockets come in as healthy as they could possibly be, facing a Warriors team a round earlier than last year, a series they believe was tilted by injury and their own tired legs.

For weeks, it’s been clear that this would be Houston’s best shot to finally beat the Warriors. These Rockets are elite on both sides of the court as of late, and they play with an incredible understanding of role and responsibly. Truth be told, they look like a team that could win a title — that’s not something I would have said in years past.

And heading into Game 1, after Golden State messed around and had to play an extra, costly first-round road game, the Rockets have to love their position. By winning their own series in five games, they actually beat the Warriors to the Bay, arriving Friday so that they could be fully acclimated just in case Game 1 was at Oracle Arena on Sunday.

But the way Durant is playing should be enough to give the Rockets pause.

No matter how good they might feel about their position — they can’t account for this kind of KD.

In the Slim Reaper’s performances the last week, there have been so many callbacks to last year’s postseason, where Curry was injured in the first two rounds and Durant effectively carried Golden State to victory. There was a reluctance, at first, to take full control of the game, but once Durant crossed that line, he never returned, going on to win a second-straight NBA Finals MVP award behind the strength of his dominant Game 3 performance in that series.

Durant is playing at that level once again. He’s set a baseline — one that can almost singlehandedly win a playoff series for a team.

Well, a normal playoff series.

But for the Warriors, this Rockets series is anything but normal. Golden State cannot coast in this one. They cannot count on their superior talent — best exemplified by Durant doing whatever he wanted on the offensive end Friday — to singlehandedly pull them through.

It’s impossible to say where the Warriors’ energy and focus levels will be heading into Game 1. Maybe this team will once again mess around, like they have so often this year. Or maybe the short turnaround leaves them no time to come down from Friday’s win. Or maybe the clear and present danger that is the Rockets’ abilities will have Golden State ready to play its A game.

But for the first time all season, this team needs to consistently pair talent and desire.

Durant will do his part. He’ll hold up his end of that bargain. It’s a big resonsibility, but he can’t go back now. He’s Kevin Durant.

Will the rest of the Warriors do theirs?