PHOENIX — The ultimate compliment to the greatest scorer ever is that because of how easy Kevin Durant makes it look, you occasionally can be lulled into a bad spell of taking his greatness for granted for a bucket or two.
Fortunately for those dumb enough to do that, he keeps adding to his list of accolades to make sure you snap out of it. Durant reached 30,000 career points in Tuesday’s 119-112 Phoenix Suns loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, becoming the eighth player in NBA history to do so.
To quickly address a correction, the label and subject matter can take away from the well-rounded star Durant is.
“This stuff is cool for sure, it’s good to be amongst the elite scorers in the league but I always looked at my game as more than that. … I feel like I’m much more of a complete basketball player than that. … Scoring is the most important part of the game and to master that and master who you are as an individual, that says a lot,” Durant said, also shouting out everyone who helped him out along his journey.
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Bol Bol gets the start at PF for Suns vs. Grizzlies
To his point, sure Durant was 12-of-18 for 34 points but he added five blocks and a steal as well.
A round number is aesthetically pleasing and all but this is a feat that averages out to happening once a decade in the league’s history.
Durant is perhaps the last player of his generation that will hit that figure, joining LeBron James after the previous decade saw Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki reach 30K as well.
James Harden at the age of 35 is just over 3,000 away and puts up around 1K a year at this rate while even someone like Stephen Curry is over 5,000 away. If Harden doesn’t get there, the next guy with a real chance to do it is 30-year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is a shade over 10,000 away and putting up around 2K when he’s healthy. Even then, who is to say how Antetokounmpo holds up once he exits his prime.
Booker just got past 15K recently and he’s 10 years in, so that’s quite the pace to maintain. Luka Doncic, currently in his seventh season and 25 years old, put up the 15th-most points six years in at 11,470, per Stathead. So he’s the next obvious candidate. And that won’t happen till the 2030s.
One of the stars of that next generation, Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, made sure Durant left the floor with the game ball.
Ja handed KD the game ball after he surpassed 30K points tonight pic.twitter.com/VluMUYpsIe
— NBA (@NBA) February 12, 2025
“That’s always been a goal mine more so than anything in this game is to gain respect from the hoopers that play,” Durant said.
Suns show fight, come up short in comeback attempt
This one doesn’t require much minutia. The Suns are a bad defensive team and played a bad defensive game, allowing the Grizzlies to lead by double digits for the majority of the night, by as many as 19. Memphis did not play particularly well but stuck to its principles in transition and was active enough on both ends to maintain real separation. There was no standout individual performance and it was not a good shooting night, either.
Phoenix would require its usual stellar efficiency offensively to have a shot in this one and it instead underperformed in that category at 44.6% and 12-for-44 (27.3%) on 3s.
Memphis had 20 offensive rebounds but only amounted to 14 second-chance points off those, while the Suns had 13 of their own and went an even 17-17 in points off turnovers.
Assists were 35-22 Suns, which is how this game wound up so close. Memphis’ ball movement and playmaking in the half-court was brutal, a fact the Suns do deserve some credit for playing a role in.
They clawed back in the fourth quarter a few different times to make it close and did not allow this one to get ugly when it could have in the third quarter but couldn’t put together a winning chain of a few possessions to ultimately complete a comeback.
Phoenix attempted to counter Memphis’ size with a shakeup in the starting lineup, putting in Bol Bol for that fifth spot. Bol was coming off back-to-back strong outings off the bench that had sparked the crowd, earning him consideration for playing time now that the Suns are nearly back to full health. That was always going to be a challenge, though, so it was a major surprise to see head coach Mike Budenholzer keep rewarding him and give Bol his first start in two years with the Suns.
In what has been the story of his tenure, Bol was active, impactful and productive through mistakes in bunches. He ended up with 18 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, two steals, four blocks and two turnovers. That level of contributions outweighs the defensive lows, which were definitely there.
TyTy Washingotn Jr. was also in the rotation, ahead of names that have been in it before like Monte Morris and rookie Ryan Dunn. Washington is on a two-way contract with Phoenix and has spent a lot of the year with the Valley Suns. He’s had a few chances to see the floor and played relatively solid, showing his knack for scoring.
Despite the skill sets from the pair not being exactly what the Suns need, Budenholzer went for a jolt of young energy against a superior opponent. Budenholzer said it was a matter of trying to find combinations that work in regards to Washington while he gave major props to Bol for his level of play.
Washington was 1-for-8 and 0-of-6 from 3 in 13 minutes. A crucial stretch in the mid-fourth quarter included him missing a trio of open 3s as a guy who has never particularly been seen as a shooter.
Memphis won this game because it was able to keep Devin Booker away from getting his fingerprints all over it. He was 6-of-13 for 17 points with nine assists and two turnovers. Because of the Suns’ poor shooting off the extra attention Booker saw, that ended up as a win for the Grizzlies.
Dunn’s lack of playing time the last week has been a strange turn in his rookie season but he’s clearly still not at 100% with his left ankle that he’s tweaked at least twice in the last few weeks. While he said he was all good after Saturday’s loss, Dunn just a few minutes into his time on the floor came up hobbling off that left leg. He stayed in and kept playing but the five minutes he got in the first half were it.
Nick Richards (16 minutes) and Mason Plumlee (7) were out there for less than half the game, another nod to how much Budenholzer is trying stuff and the potential for smaller lineups with Bol’s length out there.
Bradley Beal (left great toe sprain) was the only notable player out for this one.
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