NBA: Durant scores 38 to pass Jordan
Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant (35). AP FILE PHOTO
PHOENIX — Kevin Durant scored 38 points to pass Michael Jordan with his 41st straight game of 25-plus, but it wasn’t enough to help Oklahoma City beat Phoenix on Sunday.
Goran Dragic led a half dozen Suns players in double figures with 26 points as the Phoenix rallied past the Thunder 122-115 to move into sole possession of eighth place in the Western Conference standings.
Article continues after this advertisementDurant now has at least 25 points in 41 consecutive games to surpass the legendary Jordan, who had 40 back in the 1986-87 season. Durant’s streak is now the third longest in NBA history.
“I don’t really care about it,” Durant told The Oklahoman newspaper. “I wish it was over.”
Durant last failed to score 25 or more points on January 5 against Boston. Durant also had 11 rebounds.
Article continues after this advertisementHeading into Sunday’s contest the league’s leading scorer was averaging 32.1 points a game. Durant has won the scoring title in four of the last five seasons.
Oscar Robertson had a 46-game run of 25-plus back in 1963-64 and Wilt Chamberlain did it in all 80 regular-season games of the 1961-62 season while playing for the Philadelphia Warriors.
Those two streaks happened before the league’s three-point era came into being, making Durant’s the longest of the so called, modern era.
Phoenix led by three points late in the fourth quarter when they turned it up a notch to record the victory in front of a crowd of 18,422 at the US Airways Center arena.
Eric Bledsoe stripped Durant and took it the full length of the court before getting blocked at the rim by Russell Westbrook.
Derek Fisher came up with the loose ball for the Thunder, but P.J. Tucker ripped it from him, drawing a foul on the veteran and making two crucial foul shots with 43 second left to make it 117-112.
Bledsoe finished with 18 points.
Tucker scored a career-high 22 points and Gerald Green came off the bench to tally 24 as the Suns won for the eighth time in their last 10 games.
“We had guys make plays tonight. It is as simple as that,” Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek said.
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