{"id":593583,"date":"2026-04-08T14:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/593583\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:43:10","slug":"nba-fans-react-to-kevin-durants-1st-revenge-game-in-phoenix-after-trade-as-rockets-rally-past-suns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/593583\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Fans React to Kevin Durant&#8217;s 1st Revenge Game in Phoenix After Trade as Rockets Rally Past Suns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Kevin Durant got a modicum of revenge against one of his former teams and helped his current team move in position to potentially earn the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference playoffs on Tuesday night. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">In his first game back at Mortgage Matchup Center since being traded by the Phoenix Suns last summer, Durant scored 24 points to lead the Rockets to a 119-105 comeback win. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Durant didn&#8217;t have his most efficient game of the season. Matched up primarily with Dillon Brooks, the two-time NBA Finals MVP finished 8-of-20 from the field. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Despite the lackluster overall outing for Durant, fans reacted to his return to Phoenix and helping the Rockets extend their winning streak to a season-high seven games. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Suns jumped out to a 28-7 lead early and led by 17 after the first quarter. Houston, whose fourth-quarter offense has been an <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/fourth-quarter-struggles-offense-doom-051723554.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">issue<\/a> throughout the season, responded by outscoring the Suns 38-21 in the final period to pull away. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">While Durant was struggling to find his shot for most of the game, the Rockets got a big boost from Amen Thompson. The 23-year-old nearly had a triple-double with 22 points, 11 rebounds (six offensive) and eight assists. He also had three steals and a block on the defensive end of the court. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Devin Booker was terrific for the Suns, finishing with a game-high 31 points. Brooks and Jalen Green, the two players Houston gave up in the Durant trade, combined for 25 points on 8-of-26 shooting in the loss. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Phoenix (43-36) is still in the driver seat for the No. 7 seed and home-court advantage in the play-in tournament, but its lead over the Los Angeles Clippers is down to two games. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Durant and the Rockets (50-29) moved into a tie with the reeling Los Angeles Lakers for the No. 4 seed. The Lakers do own the head-to-head tiebreaker, so Houston has to finish with a better record to secure home-court advantage in a potential first-round matchup. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Rockets will finish the regular season with three straight home games, starting on Thursday night against the Philadelphia 76ers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant got a modicum of revenge against one of his former teams and helped his current team&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-593583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593583","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=593583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}