Kevin Durant, Rockets aim for complete effort vs. Kings
Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant was thrilled to pass Wilt Chamberlain for seventh place on the NBA's career scoring list Friday. He just wishes the celebration had included a victory.
After losing back-to-back games to the Portland Trail Blazers, Durant and the Rockets return to action against the host Sacramento Kings on Sunday.
The Kings have dropped seven straight games and 17 of their last 20. Sacramento was outscored 40-19 in the fourth quarter of Friday's 137-104 road loss to the Golden State Warriors.
After watching Warriors' star Stephen Curry record a double-double with 27 points and a season-high 10 assists, Sacramento now faces another of the league's best all-time scorers.
Durant had 30 points in Friday's 111-105 loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday night to move ahead of Chamberlain, who finished his career with 31,419 points.
"It feels amazing," Durant said. "I don't want to undercut that accomplishment. To be amongst the greats is always an honor. Wilt is somebody I studied and tried to look up as much as I can on a player like that. He set a standard for NBA players. I'm grateful to reach that and inspired by what he produced for the game of basketball."
Durant's achievement was one of the few highlights Friday for Houston, which has lost three of its last four games. The Rockets led by 13 in the fourth quarter before Portland rallied for its fifth straight win.
Houston forward Jabari Smith Jr. shouldered the blame for the loss after finishing with 13 points on 6-of-21 shooting, including 0-for-10 from 3-point range.
"I got a lot of good looks," Smith said. "Got some midrange looks, got some good 3's. We just missed them. We didn't get stops, they went on a run and got right back into the game. Stuff like that can't happen. I'll take it on the chin and take responsibility. I've got to make some shots -- simple as that."
Houston is monitoring the status of forward Tari Eason, who exited Friday's game with a right ankle sprain.
The Rockets have split their first two meetings against Sacramento this season. Houston won 121-95 at home on Dec. 3 before the Kings posted a 125-124 overtime victory in Sacramento on Dec. 21.
Sacramento is opening a seven-game homestand in search of answers following another double-digit loss. The Kings tied Golden State at 84 late in the third quarter before the Warriors closed the period on a 13-0 run.
"It's been a theme of good enough to win but also good enough to hang in and get beat," Christie said. "For me, that's all bitter. There's nothing sweet about it, man. There's absolutely zero sweetness to that. We're not playing the game to hang in there. We're not playing the game to play for 45 minutes. We're playing the game to play for 48 minutes.
DeMar DeRozan had 24 points to lead the Kings, while Zach LaVine added 15. LaVine echoed his coach's thoughts after another frustrating loss.
"You don't get points for keeping things close in this league," LaVine said. "You're supposed to keep it competitive and get it down the stretch and figure out how to win and we haven't done anything but the opposite of that."