Video: KD lights up the Dominican Republic

It’s been three weeks since we last saw Kevin Durant and his purely sweet jumper. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until he started dropping long balls against the Dominican Republic in a Team USA exhibition Thursday.

After about 10 minutes of the game, all I could think about was, “Man, I really can’t wait until next season.”

Durant scored a game-high 24 points (21 coming in the first half) on 9-of-11 shooting including 5-of-6 from 3 as Team USA rolled 113-59. In fact, KD’s 24 was two more than the entire starting five from the Dominican scored.

KD also added 10 rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes.

As we saw in Turkey at the World Championships, the shorter 3-point line in international ball is almost unfair for Durant. He hits those as long 2s in the NBA, but now gets an extra point on them. It almost makes me wonder if KD could be the greatest international player ever. His game is really perfectly built for it. He scored at will in Turkey and even with all the talent surrounding him on this team, he’s likely to lead it in scoring, or be close to it.

One thing though: Durant came off the bench. The last time that happened was the 2010 All-Star Game. Before that? I’m thinking never.

Of course Durant was joined by Thunder teammates Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Westbrook finished six points, five rebounds and two assists in 19 minutes while Harden added eight points on 3-of-9 shooting in 18 minutes.