{"id":239268,"date":"2025-10-25T05:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T05:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/239268\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T05:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T05:59:09","slug":"kevin-durant-likes-pissed-off-rockets-reaction-to-0-2-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/239268\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant likes ‘pissed off’ Rockets’ reaction to 0-2 start"},"content":{"rendered":"

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DJ Bien-AimeOct 25, 2025, 04:28 PM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>DJ Bien-Aime covers the Houston Texans for ESPN. He joined ESPN in July of 2022 after covering the New York Jets for the New York Daily News. He’s a former athlete who finished his college career at Louisville. You can catch DJ on ESPN Radio on his show “Talkin’ Texans.”<\/p>\n

HOUSTON — Star forward Kevin Durant<\/a> said Houston Rockets<\/a> players and coaches are “pissed off” as they fell to 0-2 with a 115-111 loss to the Detroit Pistons<\/a> on Friday night.<\/p>\n

But Durant also views that early-season frustration as a good thing.<\/p>\n

“Coaching staff is pissed off, players are pissed off,” he said. “We want a better outcome, and it’s early, too. So for us to feel that way I like that kind of energy.”<\/p>\n

Durant dropped 37 points on 9-of-18 shooting, while going 16 of 18 from the free throw line. But that outburst in his Houston home opener, which saw Rockets legends Yao Ming<\/a> and Hakeem Olajuwon<\/a> sitting courtside, wasn’t enough to give his new team its first win.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

Like their season-opening 125-124 double-overtime loss to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, the Rockets’ loss to the Pistons came down to the wire.<\/p>\n

But players refuse to accept moral victories, not with Durant now on a team that was the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference last season and entered this one with the fifth-best odds to win the NBA title at 14-1, according to ESPN BET.<\/p>\n

“Just feel like we haven’t played a good game yet,” guard Amen Thompson<\/a> said. “It’s been two close games. We can’t keep saying that all the time. We want to play great games. We have championship-level expectations. So just trying to play our best game every game. Bad games happen, but we are still trying to win those.”<\/p>\n

The game was tight late in the fourth quarter as Durant dribbled up the court with less than 30 seconds remaining. Every Rockets fan rose anticipating a bucket to tie or take the lead as Houston trailed 113-111.<\/p>\n

Durant quickly doubled off a pick and roll and passed it to Alperen \u015eengun<\/a>, whose shot was blocked by Pistons forward Paul Reed<\/a> with 16 seconds left. Detroit guard Cade Cunningham<\/a> was fouled shortly after and secured the win by draining two free throws.<\/p>\n

Durant admitted he’s still finding the balance on taking over games versus letting his teammates get in rhythm. He had 14 points in the fourth quarter; no other Rockets player scored more than three.<\/p>\n

“It’s a balance I felt like when I came back in that fourth quarter,” Durant said. “I got aggressive and made them double me, and I think we got some good looks.”<\/p>\n

Durant, who signed a two-year, $90 million contract extension with the Rockets on Sunday, has flashed what he could be for the team through two games. He’s averaging 30 points on 53% from the floor while shooting 43% from the 3-point line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DJ Bien-AimeOct 25, 2025, 04:28 PM CloseDJ Bien-Aime covers the Houston Texans for ESPN. He joined ESPN in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-239268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}