Kevin Durant missed on 10 of his 12 three-point attempts for the Phoenix Suns while fellow future Hall of Famer Chris Paul went down to a groin injury in the third quarter.
All the while, Devin Booker did what he could in an attempt to help the Suns avoid a 2-0 series deficit against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals.
Booker scored 35 of the Suns’ 87 points while hitting on 14-of-29 from the field. He hit on 4-of-8 from distance as the rest of the Suns’ roster connected on just 2-of-23.
The end result was an ugly 97-87 road loss for Durant and the Phoenix Suns. They are now on the brink heading back home for Game 3 of the series Friday night in the desert.
For Durant, the lack of efficiency we saw Monday night against Denver is not something he anticipated after a mid-season trade from the Brooklyn Nets.
“If you’re efficient, you can work with another player,” Durant told Sportsnaut’s Mark Medina ahead of the NBA Playoffs. “If there is a guy that is an inefficient basketball player, you’re going to take up a lot of the possession and that might bog down your offense a bit.”
About that. Denver outscored Phoenix 27-14 in the fourth quarter. A large part of that had to do with Durant’s inefficient performance throughout the night.
The two-time NBA Finals MVP scored 24 points on 27 shots (0.89 points per shot). Durant averaged 1.59 points per shot during the regular season. He also connected on just 10-of-27 from the field after hitting on 56% of his shots during the regular season.
Phoenix gave up the franchise to acquire Durant from the Brooklyn Nets back in February. That included multiple future first-round picks as well as young wings Cameron Johnson and Mikal Bridges.
The idea was for KD to help this Phoenix team get over the top after a disappointing exit in the Western Conference Semifinals last year.
One day after Durant’s former Golden State Warriors teammate Stephen Curry dropped a record 50 point in their Game 7 win over the Sacramento Kings, KD came up small.
A first-round exit at the hands of Denver could very well have a lasting impact on Durant’s legacy. That is to say, he can’t win the big one without Curry as a running partner. Fair or not, it’s a narrative that will pop up given that Curry is the reigning NBA Finals MVP himself.
As noted above, Paul went down with a lower body injury after attempting for a rebound in the third quarter. At the time of Paul’s injury, Phoenix found themselves up 59-55 with 4:32 remaining in the third quarter.
The Suns ended up scoring 28 points in the final 16:32 of the game, finding themselves outscored by 14 points in the process.
Initial reports are that Paul suffered from groin tightness before exiting and not returning to the game. Any time we are talking about that area of the body and the NBA playoffs, it’s not seen as a good thing.
For now, Phoenix finds itself in must-win mode heading into Friday night’s game against Denver. The long rest should help as it relates to Paul. But KD and Co. must step up to help salvage the season.
And in the process, Durant needs to salvage his legacy. It’s not necessarily a hot take in a society filled with them.
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