{"id":558121,"date":"2026-01-24T17:14:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/558121\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T17:14:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:14:35","slug":"kevin-durant-praises-houstons-poise-after-statement-win-at-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/558121\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant praises Houston\u2019s poise after statement win at Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one of their most impressive wins of the 2025-26 season, the Rockets wrapped up a difficult road back-to-back with Friday\u2019s 111-104 victory (box score<\/a>) at Detroit.<\/p>\n

Houston (27-16) and Detroit (32-11) remain at No. 4 in the Western and Eastern Conference standings<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n

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One night after committing eight turnovers in an overtime loss at Philadelphia<\/a> \u2014 including a very harmful one in the final minute of regulation \u2014 Kevin Durant made amends and then some.<\/p>\n

Playing 41 minutes despite the back-to-back, the future Hall of Famer finished with a game-high 32 points and 7 rebounds while making 11-of-19 shots (57.9%) and 5-of-11 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just stayed poised,\u201d said Durant, who is expected to earn his 16th career All-Star selection in the coming days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great coaching staff,\u201d added Durant, who \u2014 at 37 years old \u2014 ranks third in the NBA in minutes per game<\/a>. \u201cGreat training staff. They keep me ready. They keep me engaged, mentally and physically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other individual standouts included:<\/p>\n

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Jabari Smith Jr.: 11 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks; 5-of-9 shooting (55.6%), 1-of-3 on 3-pointers (33.3%)<\/p>\n

Alperen Sengun: 19 points, 5 assists, 5 turnovers, 1 rebound; 6-of-11 shooting (54.5%), 7-of-10 on free throws (70.0%)<\/p>\n

Amen Thompson: 15 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals; 5-of-11 shooting (45.5%), 5-of-5 on free throws<\/p>\n

Reed Sheppard: 18 points in 25 minutes; 6-of-15 shooting (40.0%), 5-of-5 on free throws<\/p>\n

One night after shooting 12-of-24 on free throws (50.0%) in that loss to the 76ers, the Rockets went 24-of-30 (80.0%) in Detroit.<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s defense helped force Pistons star Cade Cunningham into a relatively inefficient night, as the All-Star guard finished with 12 points, 8 assists, and 6 turnovers while making 5-of-13 shots (38.5%) and missing all four of his 3-point attempts.<\/p>\n

Tari Eason and Dorian Finney-Smith, who are each recovering from ankle injuries, sat out for maintenance purposes on night two of the back-to-back. Steven Adams remains sidelined indefinitely with a severe ankle sprain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Next up for the Rockets is a return home to Toyota Center, where Houston is 15-3 this season. A two-game homestand begins Monday night versus Memphis, with tipoff versus the Grizzlies (18-25) scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Central.<\/p>\n

The game will be televised regionally\u00a0on Space City Home Network<\/a> and nationally via NBA League Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More: As numbers rise, Rockets guard Amen Thompson turns heads around NBA<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Kevin Durant praises Houston\u2019s poise after statement win at Detroit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of their most impressive wins of the 2025-26 season, the Rockets wrapped up a difficult road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[679,1307,883,2692,7,909,296,374,292,194,4066,1346,938,293,6,678,297,1081,211,3709,962,873],"class_list":["post-558121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-rockets","tag-76ers","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-amen-thompson","tag-ausar","tag-basketball","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-detroit","tag-dorian-finney-smith","tag-houston","tag-houston-rockets","tag-houstonrockets","tag-jabari-smith","tag-kevin-durant","tag-memphis","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia","tag-pistons","tag-reed-sheppard","tag-rockets","tag-space-city-home-network","tag-steven-adams","tag-tari-eason"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115951204264345524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558121","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=558121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}