{"id":704762,"date":"2026-04-08T06:55:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704762\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T06:55:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:55:25","slug":"kevin-durant-scores-24-in-his-return-to-phoenix-leads-the-rockets-past-the-suns-119-105","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704762\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant scores 24 in his return to Phoenix, leads the Rockets past the Suns 119-105"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Kevin Durant<\/a> scored 24 points in his return to Phoenix and the Houston Rockets<\/a> rallied from an early 21-point deficit and pulled away late to beat the Phoenix Suns<\/a> 119-105 on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

The Rockets are on a seven-game winning streak and moved into a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> for the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference playoff race.<\/p>\n

All five Houston starters scored in double figures. Durant made 5 of 9 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

Durant, a 16-time All-Star, was greeted with a mix of boos and cheers by Suns fans when he was announced as part of the Rockets’ starting lineup. He was traded to the Rockets during the offseason after spending 2 1\/2 seasons in the desert in a package that brought Dillon Brooks<\/a> and Jalen Green<\/a> to the Suns.<\/p>\n

The Suns jumped out to a 26-5 lead midway through the first quarter, hitting 10 of their first 15 shots, but the Rockets cut the deficit to 57-54 by halftime. Houston led early in the third quarter but Phoenix rallied to take an 84-81 into the fourth.<\/p>\n

Houston scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to push back into the lead and didn\u2019t trail again. Durant hit a 3-pointer to put Rockets up 111-96 with 4:14 left.<\/p>\n

Devin Booker<\/a> scored 31 points for the Suns. The Rockets finished with a 55-34 rebounding edge.<\/p>\n

Durant came to the Suns in 2023 as part of a four-team trade deadline deal just hours after Mat Ishbia officially took the reins of the franchise as a majority owner. The splashy move was widely praised at the time, but the Suns were never able to advance past the second round of the playoffs during his tenure.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Rockets: Host the 76ers on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Suns: Host the Mavericks<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA<\/a>: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Kevin Durant scored 24 points in his return to Phoenix and the Houston Rockets rallied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,2292,1195,194,861,938,1407,6,11,472],"class_list":{"0":"post-704762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-devin-booker","10":"tag-dillon-brooks","11":"tag-houston-rockets","12":"tag-jalen-green","13":"tag-kevin-durant","14":"tag-national-basketball-association","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-playoffs","17":"tag-phoenix-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116367780973410490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704762","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=704762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}