Reigning NBA MVP Kevin Durant is the best scorer of his generation, a player with an honest shot at breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career scoring record and rewriting various other records along the way. Part of what makes Durant so amazing, though, is that he's able to put up so many points without throwing up an especially high volume of shots. He has logged a true shooting percentage of 60 percent or better in four of his seven complete seasons and looks set to make it five overall and four in a row if his current 62.5 percent mark holds up over the remainder of 2014-15. The guy isn't just prolific — he's brutally efficient.
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Monday night's game against the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center proved to be a particularly good showcase for Durant's cost-effective scoring. Over his 37 minutes of the Oklahoma City Thunder's 124-114 win, Durant finished with 40 points on only 19 field goal attempts, hitting on 13 of them (including 7-of-12 three-pointers, tying his career-best for long-range makes). It was also just the fifth time that Durant had scored 40 or more on 20 shots or fewer. Take a look at his highlights here:

Durant was so good that he eclipsed several other highly efficient and impressive games from teammates and opponents. Co-star Russell Westbrook went for 26 points on 8-of-14 shooting (plus nine assists), while starting guard Andre Roberson put up 12 points on 5-of-6 field goals. (Reserve center Mitch McGary added 17 points and 10 rebounds in the team's first full game without the injured Steven Adams, which might have been most notable performance for the Thunder's long-term playoff hopes.) On the other side, four Nuggets starters had at least 16 points on better-than-50-percent shooting, with Ty Lawson leading the way at 22 points on 8-of-12 shots.
Yet Durant has a tendency to make really good players seem normal. Few players in history have been able to score in so many ways with such regularity. If the Thunder sometimes appear too dependent on Durant and Westbrook for their own good, then it may be because its very easy to rest on the laurels of two guys who provide so much. Sometimes one absurdly efficient 40-point performance seems like enough to conquer the league.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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