Published: January 19th, 2013 @ 2:13 PM

By: Jon Galt

Kevin Durant scores career high 52 points!

• Durant scores 52 points
• He was a perfect 21/21 at the line
• Oklahoma City beats Dallas in Overtime

Last night Kevin Durant set a career high in points scored in a thrilling 117-114 Oklahoma City Thunder win over their Western Conference rival Dallas Mavericks.

Durant was perfect from the line against Dallas

 

It was truly a remarkable performance by Durant, the highest individual scoring performance this season in the NBA. He scored 19 points in crunch time against the Mavs (a perfect 10/10 from the charity stripe). This season he has the highest number of points in clutch time (last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter). 

 

“I was upset with myself in the fourth quarter,” Durant said after exceeding his previous career high by one point. “I missed so many shots, and I wasn’t taking it to the rim. I wasn’t putting pressure on the defense, so I was just trying to make up for it in overtime.” 

 

 

Durant also scored the game winning basket with 16.9 seconds remaining in the OT.

 

“For a guy getting 52, I think this is about as well as you can guard him,” Mavericks power forward Nowitzki said. “Obviously, I think we could have kept him off the line on some occasions where we reach in or he gets to the line because he’s Kevin Durant. Twenty-one is too much, especially if he shoots them like a layup. 

“You can’t give a good player 21 free throws. If he keeps seeing the ball go through the basket, at some point he's gonna get hot."

 

Although his field goal performance wasn't great (41.9 percent, 10 percent down from his usual numbers) he more than made up for it from the line shooting a perfect 21 for 21.

 

With this performance, Durant has increased his PPG to 29.3 and trails only Kobe Bryant in a attempt to win his 4th consecutive NBA Scoring Championship.

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Kevin Durant 52 Points vs Mavs