Kevin Durant fifth, Michael Jordan sixth

It was almost a night to forget for Kevin Durant – until it wasn’t. The forward missed a heavily contested pull-up jumper over Bam Adebayo that seemed destined to hand the Houston Rockets another painful home defeat, this time against the Miami Heat. But Amen Thompson – relying on his trademark athleticism – soared in to snatch the rebound midair and tip it back in at the buzzer. His putback sealed a 123–122 win for a Rockets team that continues to grind forward, even if not as convincingly as expected.

At least they are moving in the right direction. At 43–27, they sit fourth in the Western Conference, half a game ahead of the Nuggets and Timberwolves, and still within striking distance of the third-place Lakers, just 2.5 games back. A loss here might have forced them to start letting that chase go. Instead, the playoff picture remains tight: among Lakers, Rockets, Nuggets, and Wolves, two teams will miss out on home-court advantage in the first round, while seeding could also dictate a far more difficult path through the bracket.

Thompson’s heroics spared Durant from being remembered for the miss rather than the milestone. The veteran finished with 27 points on 9-for-17 shooting, but the night belonged to history: at 37, he surpassed Michael Jordan’s 32,292 career points to become the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history.

His next target is Kobe Bryant (33,643), before the much steeper climbs toward Karl Malone (36,928) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387). As for LeBron James – already past 43,000 and still going – that conversation can wait. “Four more to be No. 1,” Durant joked with a smile after the hard-fought win. In his first season in Texas – his 19th in the NBA – he has now passed Wilt Chamberlain, Dirk Nowitzki, and Michael Jordan, three legends he now trails behind him on the all-time list. And that’s despite missing the entire 2019–20 season with a torn Achilles suffered in the 2018 Finals.

Warriors still in free fall

Atlanta has become a nightmare stop for the Golden State Warriors. They haven’t won there since December 2018, and this latest visit marked a seventh straight loss in Georgia – a 126–110 blowout that unraveled after halftime. The game was tight at the break (63–61), but by midway through the third quarter the Hawks had surged ahead 84–64, a decisive +20 against a depleted and exhausted opponent.

Jonathan Kuminga, facing his former team for the first time, was largely a non-factor – just 2 points on 1-for-9 shooting with four turnovers – in a performance that highlighted the gap between expectation and reality in his turbulent tenure.

The Hawks (39–32) are surging at exactly the right time. Now sixth in the East, tied with seventh but just one game behind fifth, they are building real momentum to avoid the play-in altogether: 12 wins in their last 13 games, including 10 straight at home. After stumbling in Houston on Friday, they dismantled a Warriors team that looked short-handed, fatigued, and overwhelmed on the second night of a back-to-back. Turnovers again proved costly – after allowing 32 points off 26 turnovers in Detroit, they gave up 38 points off 21 in Atlanta.

Before tip-off, Golden State listed 11 players as out or questionable – a nightmare scenario for Steve Kerr. There was at least some optimism regarding Stephen Curry’s knee, with a potential return in the coming days, but it may already be too late. At 33–38, with eight losses in their last nine games, the Warriors are clinging to the final play-in spot (10th), now two games behind eighth place, which offers a clearer path to the playoffs.

Injuries have left the Warriors’ rotation in tatters. Alongside Curry – and Jimmy Butler, out for the season – they were also missing Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, Seth Curry, and Moses Moody. With so few available bodies, the team simply collapsed once Atlanta applied pressure.

The Hawks dominated the second quarter (39–20), finishing it with a remarkable 12-for-13 on two-point shots. CJ McCollum led with 23 points and five assists, while Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 17. Dyson Daniels delivered a standout performance – 28 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals – and rookie Zaccharie Risacher contributed 17 off the bench. Mouhamed Gueye stepped up in the absence of star Jalen Johnson with a flawless 16 points and 10 rebounds.

For the Warriors, De’Anthony Melton scored 20, while Brandin Podziemski and Gui Santos struggled. At least the bench provided some production – 62 combined points from Nate Williams, LJ Cryer, Pat Spencer, and others – but it was nowhere near enough to stop the slide.

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