{"id":546485,"date":"2026-01-19T10:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/546485\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T10:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:12:14","slug":"dirk-nowitzkis-message-to-kevin-durant-for-passing-him-on-scoring-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/546485\/","title":{"rendered":"Dirk Nowitzki\u2019s message to Kevin Durant for passing him on scoring list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dirk Nowitzki\u2019s message to Kevin Durant for passing him on scoring list<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Houston Rockets<\/a> superstar Kevin Durant added another milestone to his decorated career<\/a> on Sunday, moving past former Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki to claim sixth place on the NBA\u2019s all-time scoring list. Durant needed 17 points going into the Rockets\u2019 119-110 home win over the New Orleans Pelicans, and he reached the mark with 15.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter by sinking a crucial free throw, giving him 31,561 career points, just ahead of Nowitzki\u2019s 31,560.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNot super happy about him passing me,\u201d Nowitzki joked, before showering Durant with praise in a video message<\/a>. \u201cSeriously, to me, he is one of the purest, smoothest scorers the game has ever seen. I think he\u2019s a seven footer with really a two guards game, the shot making, the off the dribble stuff, the off balance stuff, I mean there\u2019s really nothing you can do to stop him one on one, he can always get a great shot up that\u2019s just how skilled he is, how long he is, how good his release is and so it\u2019s been incredible to watch his career. Congrats, KD. Keep it going. Move up a couple more spots and keep it up, good luck!\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant now trails only basketball royalty on the all-time scoring list: LeBron James (42,703), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Kobe Bryant (33,643), and Michael Jordan (32,292). With 731 points remaining to pass Jordan, Durant is on pace to reach that milestone within the next 30 games at his current scoring average.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old is in his 18th NBA season and continues to perform at an extraordinary level. In Sunday\u2019s game, he finished with 18 points, six rebounds, eight assists, and a steal. Durant is averaging 26.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists on 51.0 percent shooting, including 39.3 percent from three, over 38 games this season.<\/p>\n

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The win also brought redemption for Houston after an earlier-season collapse against New Orleans in which they blew a 25-point lead. The Rockets improved to 14-3 at home and 25-15 overall for the season behind strong performances from Jabari Smith Jr., who scored a game-high 32 points on 7-of-13 three-point shooting, along with eight rebounds and one block. Houston out-rebounded the Pelicans 47-39, with Steven Adams leading with 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Up next, the Rockets will face the San Antonio Spurs in a highly anticipated Western Conference matchup on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Related: Every NBA team\u2019s biggest need ahead of 2026 NBA trade deadline<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: NBA rumors: Exploratory Bucks-Kings trade talks come to light<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dirk Nowitzki\u2019s message to Kevin Durant for passing him on scoring list appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,9327,149,1105,194,2497,938,1536,185,6,478,470,474,962],"class_list":["post-546485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-career-points","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dirk-nowitzki","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jabari-smith-jr","tag-kevin-durant","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-steven-adams"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115921233177607828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546485","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=546485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}