via The Associated Press<\/a>. \u201c[That was] a place that I didn\u2019t want to leave. My first time \u2014 I don\u2019t want to sound too dramatic, but I will \u2014 to be kicked out of a place.\u201d<\/p>\nDurant spent 2 1\/2 seasons with the Suns before the team traded him to the Rockets in a massive deal last summer. The Suns made it to the second round of the playoffs only once with Durant on their roster, and they missed the postseason completely last season. Durant also had three different head coaches during his time in Phoenix, and the organization has a new one running things now in Jordan Ott.<\/p>\n
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While the Suns had more issues with their roster than just Durant, he said he felt like all of the blame was placed on his shoulders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good to play against a team that booted you out of the building and scapegoated you for all the problems they had,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it hurt because I put all my effort and love and care towards the Suns and the Phoenix area and Arizona in general. But that\u2019s just the business, that\u2019s the name of the game. So, when you play against a [former] team, yeah you got a chip on your shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Devin Booker led the Suns with 27 points in the loss. O\u2019Neal finished with 15 points, and Dillon Brooks added 15 points. The Suns now sit at 21-15 on the season, and have won six of their past eight to climb rapidly in the Western Conference standings.<\/p>\n
Durant finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds in the win for the Rockets. His game-winner was just the second 3-pointer he made all night. Durant went 2 of 12 from behind the arc.<\/p>\n
Both Amen Thompson and Jabari Smith Jr. finished with 17 points and seven rebounds each, and Tari Eason added 12 points and eight rebounds. Houston now holds a 22-11 record this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I\u2019m old, I still can play,\u201d Durant said. \u201cI feel like every player has that mentality playing against their former team. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s malicious in any way towards them. But just as a competitor, you want to go out there and beat them.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Durant is still clearly harboring some negative feelings toward the Suns organization, he\u2019s gotten most of his matchups against them out of the way early. Monday’s game wasn’t the Rockets’ first against the Suns this season; it was their third. All three of them have been wins. The Rockets won\u2019t play the Suns again until April 7. If the two teams don\u2019t see each other in the playoffs, that\u2019ll be it until next fall.<\/p>\n
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Yet despite his comments, Durant may not even care by then \u2014 or even by the time he left the Toyota Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time I get home tonight, I probably won\u2019t even remember it,\u201d he said. \u201cWell, I will remember it, but I\u2019ll try my best to forget about it and move on to the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant did not hold back after beating his former team on Monday night. Durant hit a game-winning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3794],"tags":[883,7,2292,1195,292,194,4066,2497,938,6,472,211,873,6445],"class_list":{"0":"post-520221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-amen-thompson","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-devin-booker","11":"tag-dillon-brooks","12":"tag-houston","13":"tag-houston-rockets","14":"tag-houstonrockets","15":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","16":"tag-kevin-durant","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-phoenix-suns","19":"tag-rockets","20":"tag-tari-eason","21":"tag-the-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115848378174971936","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}