HOUSTON \u2013 Friday night, the Houston Rockets hosted the Phoenix Suns in a matchup of the two primary teams in last summer\u2019s blockbuster trade that brought Kevin Durant from the desert to Clutch City.<\/p>\n
Durant entered the night with 30,996 career total points. With two free throws and a midrange jumper in the first quarter, Durant crossed the 31,000 mark. <\/p>\n
KD is now one of just eight players in NBA history to surpass 31,000 points, joining LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki, and Wilt Chamberlain.<\/p>\n
While announcing the Suns\u2019 starters before the opening tip, the Rockets played a tribute video for Dillon Brooks, who solidified himself as one of Houston\u2019s defensive anchors and a fan-favorite before being sent to Phoenix. Never one to feign a smile, he nodded in quiet solidarity.<\/p>\n
Brooks must\u2019ve saved all of his emotions for the court, because he got off to a red-hot start in his return to H-Town. He scored 14 first quarter points and the Suns led, 31-24 after one.<\/p>\n
After the first quarter, the Rockets played another tribute video for Jalen Green \u2014 who also went to Phoenix in the Durant deal. Green was out with an injury, but he smiled and showed appreciation for the fans in his street clothes.<\/p>\n
After a first quarter that was modest for his standards, KD caught fire in the second period. By way of a three-pointer, a dunk, and a few of his signature midrange pull-ups, KD led a 30-11 Rockets scoring run. <\/p>\n
Durant led all scorers at the half with 21 points, and the Rockets took a 70-58 lead into the break. Amen Thompson and Jabari Smith Jr. had 14 points and 10 points, respectively, and Brooks led Phoenix with 18.<\/p>\n
The Rockets were without star center Alperen Sengun, as he was sidelined with an illness. Tari Eason and Dorian Finney-Smith were also unavailable, as they are still weeks away from returning from their injuries.<\/p>\n
Phoenix was also missing key contributors, as starting guards Devin Booker and former-Rocket Jalen Green were both off the floor tonight.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Friday night, the Houston Rockets hosted the Phoenix Suns in a matchup of the two primary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1770,38468,56,58,57,4854,66,3080,223,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-78108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-e","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-headlines","12":"tag-houston-news","13":"tag-houston-rockets","14":"tag-local","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}