{"id":570250,"date":"2026-01-30T06:51:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T06:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/570250\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T06:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T06:51:30","slug":"kevin-durant-leads-another-back-to-back-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/570250\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant leads another back-to-back victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 29, 2026, 10:56 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

One night after losing at home<\/a> to San Antonio, the Houston Rockets<\/a> rebounded with Thursday\u2019s 104-86 victory (box score<\/a>) at Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The Rockets (29-17) remain at No. 4 in the Western Conference standings<\/a>, while the Hawks (24-26) are No. 9 in the East.<\/p>\n

For Houston, the big story was veteran star Kevin Durant. In 34 minutes, the All-Star forward finished with a game-high 31 points on 12-of-22 shooting (54.5%), including 3-of-8 from 3-point range (37.5%).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fought through the mud a little bit in the first half,\u201d Durant said postgame. With its future Hall of Famer leading the way, Houston is 3-0 on the second night of back-to-backs in January after going 0-3 in that situation in December.<\/p>\n

Other key statistics included:<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>Jabari Smith Jr.: 14 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks, 3 steals; 5-of-12 shooting (41.7%), 2-of-6 on 3-pointers (33.3%)Reed Sheppard: 13 points, 4 assists; 3-of-7 on 3-pointers (42.9%)Josh Okogie: 10 points, 10 rebounds; 3-of-5 on 3-pointers (60.0%)Alperen Sengun: 9 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks; 3-of-14 shooting (21.4%)Clint Capela: 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 assists; 4-of-4 shooting, +17 in 18 minutesCJ McCollum (Hawks): 23 points, 5 rebounds; 9-of-19 shooting (47.4%), 5-of-11 on 3-pointers (45.5%)<\/p>\n

\u201cNext man up mentality,\u201d said Capela, who is now Houston\u2019s primary backup at center after Steven Adams\u2019 season-ending ankle surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both teams were finishing out a back-to-back, so each had a handful of absences for maintenance purposes. The Rockets were without Tari Eason and Dorian Finney-Smith, while the Hawks were missing Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu. All four played a night earlier.<\/p>\n

Next up for the Rockets is a spotlight game versus another in-state rival, as Dallas (19-29) visits Houston on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Tipoff of Rockets-Mavericks is at 7:30 p.m. Central from Toyota Center, and the game will be televised to a national audience on ABC.<\/p>\n

More: In costly loss, Rockets struggle with Spurs\u2019 second-half adjustments<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 29, 2026, 10:56 p.m. CT One night after losing at home to San Antonio, the Houston Rockets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3794],"tags":[72400,7,7687,292,194,4066,6,211,72742,72743,72801,72913,72404,73040,72740,72559,72800,72902,73041,72904,72445,72811,72954,72643,72406,72556,73039,1928,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-570250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-ga","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-rockets","13":"tag-houstonrockets","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-rockets","16":"tag-sstssportsnbarockets","17":"tag-sstsnrockets","18":"tag-tagalperen-sengun","19":"tag-tagatlanta","20":"tag-tagbasketball","21":"tag-tagdorian-finney-smith","22":"tag-taghouston","23":"tag-taghouston-rockets","24":"tag-tagjabari-smith-jr","25":"tag-tagjalen-johnson","26":"tag-tagjosh-okogie","27":"tag-tagonyeka-okongwu","28":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","29":"tag-tagreed-sheppard","30":"tag-tagsan-antonio","31":"tag-tagsan-antonio-spurs","32":"tag-tagsports-news","33":"tag-tagsteven-adams","34":"tag-tagtari-eason","35":"tag-tx","36":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570250","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=570250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}