Kevin Durant joins LeBron James as only active player with 27,000 points. How did it happen?
The former MVP is now in rarified air after his performance on Tuesday night, but individual accolades won’t take away the sting of his team’s loss.
As one of his generation’s best players, it’s no surprise that the two-time NBA champion has achieved yet another milestone. Yet, one has to believe that the only thing that will truly make him happy is winning another title.
Kevin Durant joins the 27K club but at a price
If you caught Tuesday’s game between the Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs then you would have witnessed both history and confusion. Let’s start with the achievement i.e., Kevin Durant’s final basket of the night which came with 1:03 left on the clock in the fourth quarter of the game. After gliding past the Spurs’ Keldon Johnson to throw down a two-handed jam, Durant gave the Suns a five-point lead. Yet, with those two points, he also became the only active player alongside LeBron James to reach 27,000 points - the former Warriors star is now on 27,001. At 35 years old, one has to admit that it’s incredible to observe what Durant continues to do.
So, what was the downside of Kevin Durant’s night?
This is where we get to the ‘confusion’ that was referenced above. Despite the fact that Durant’s milestone gave the Suns a lead with just over a minute left in the game, they failed to hold on. Quite frankly, they collapsed. Spurs’ wonder kid Victor Wembanyama put a quick four points on the board to cut the lead to one with six seconds to play, at which point Durant received the inbound pass in the corner and was trapped immediately. Who robbed him of the ball? The said same Keldon Johnson who then contributed what turned out to be the game-winning bucket in what ended as a 115-114 Spurs win.
It’s worth noting that Durant could be seen with scratch marks and blood on his face following the turnover, however, it remains difficult to say when exactly contact was made. At any rate, a loss is a loss and if we’re honest, it’s one that the Suns should never have conceded given that they lead by as much as 20 points at one time in the game. One can also point to the fact that Suns head coach Frank Vogel could easily have called for a timeout which he chose not to.
Indeed, the same criticism can be leveled at Durant himself who also failed to make his game-winning attempt on the other end, albeit from a very difficult angle. Ultimately, while Durant’s achievement on the night is worthy of recognition, it goes without saying that in an absolutely stacked Western Conference, losses like this will prove extremely detrimental to the cause. As they say, on to the next.