{"id":947261,"date":"2026-10-31T06:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T06:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947261\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T06:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T06:12:11","slug":"kevin-durant-gives-blunt-take-on-rockets-first-loss-this-season-we-couldve-blown-the-game-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947261\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant Gives Blunt Take On Rockets’ First Loss This Season: ‘We Could’ve Blown The Game Open’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Durant<\/a> and the Houston Rockets<\/a> faced the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> at the American Airlines Center tonight and lost a nail-biting matchup, 111-116<\/a>, after leading by 11 points late in the third quarter.\u00a0The 38-year-old Durant finished with 28 points, five rebounds, and one assist, shooting 9-for-20 from the field (45.0% FG) and 1-for-6 from three (16.7% 3P).<\/p>\n

Despite leading all scorers for the Rockets, it was clearly an off night for the superstar, as some crucial shots and free throws did not fall like they usually do.\u00a0Following the game, Kevin Durant spoke to the media and candidly reflected on tonight\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say we missed shots. I think we got a lot of good looks. I think we could\u2019ve blown the game open; we missed two or three wide-open threes. I missed one, Bogey, Smart, I think; wide-open looks to go up 12-13 points would have changed the landscape of the game,\u201d Durant said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s just how basketball is; you\u2019re not going to make them at all times. You\u2019ve got to give credit to Dallas; they played a poised game all the way through when they were down 10. They were up early; we took the lead back, but they just kept grinding, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s one of those old slughouse type games where you got to appreciate both teams for coming out there with that energy tonight,\u201d Durant further added<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were making tough shots. I mean, that last shot and the last few shots, you just have to tip your hat to them. They\u2019re great players. Especially that one over the spin, fade, and jump shot. It was a tough shot, and you have to give them credit,\u201d Kevin Durant said on what Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving did to make the Rockets\u2019 lives tougher.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I just feel like I missed too many shots in the fourth quarter. That\u2019s why we lost. Free throws, too,\u201d Durant said as he took some accountability for the loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did have too many transition points. We gave up 75 points and 72 points or something in the second half, which is uncharacteristic. But they\u2019re shot-makers. As an NBA player, you\u2019re going to have nights when you\u2019re cold as hell, and nights like tonight when they knock down some tough shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made some tough ones, and we also gave them some open ones. That combination worked well for them. But I still like the process. We stuck to some principles we\u2019ve been preaching all year. We got back into the game and got more shots up than them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t turn the ball over. We might have forced more turnovers, too. I don\u2019t know for sure, but it was pretty even in that regard. We got a lot of looks. They were just more efficient than us. It was just one of those games. I think both teams played hard. They just made more shots toward the end,\u201d Kevin Durant concluded<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tonight was an uncharacteristic night for the Rockets, who deeply missed the offensive output of Alperen Sengun and Reed Sheppard\u2019s three-point shooting.<\/p>\n

The Rockets are now 5-1 and second in the Western Conference standings. They now face Kevin Durant\u2019s former team<\/a>, the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, tomorrow night (October 31). The result of that game could determine whether the Rockets simply had an off-night tonight or whether they have a red flag they need to address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets faced the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center tonight and lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-947261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947261","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=947261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}