In his 1,000th NBA game, Kevin Durant moved up on the all-time scoring list.
KD tough
— NBA (@NBA) November 22, 2023
With this bucket Kevin Durant moves into 11th all-time on the regular season scoring list!
NBA In-Season Tournament
West Group A action on the NBA App
https://t.co/EPuJGoMi45 pic.twitter.com/dA3BcQw19N
Durant celebrated his milestone by moving past Elvin Hayes for 11th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list with his 27,314th point. KD needed 14 points to pass Hayes and wasted very little time in doing so, dropping 14 in the first quarter while not missing a shot.
Kevin Durant in the first quarter:
— Booker Muse (@DevinBookerMuse) November 22, 2023
14 PTS
100 FG%
100 3P%
100 FT%
Perfect. pic.twitter.com/WhNLlFOYMe
He may be 11th on the all-time scoring list, but Durant has played fewer NBA games than all of the top 22 scorers. You have to go down to No. 23, Jerry West, to find a scorer who's made fewer appearances than Durant, who missed the entire 2019-20 season with a torn Achilles, the majority of the 2014-15 season with a Jones fracture as well as large portions of the previous three seasons with various injuries.
But at age 35, Durant is still scoring 31.4 points per game, even better than his career average of 27.3 points per game, fifth-best in NBA history. That means that Moses Malone, tenth on the all-time list with 27,409 points, is about to get passed by Durant. With 31 points against the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday, Durant is on pace to move past Malone by Sunday's game against the New York Knicks.
Barring injury, Durant should also pass No. 9 Carmelo Anthony and No. 8 Shaquille O'Neal by the end of the season. And lest you think Durant is just a scorer, he had nine assists on Tuesday night.
Phoenix doesn't have a true point guard, so it's possible that Durant will fill that role too. If he doesn't need a perfect Achilles tendon to climb the scoring list, he doesn't need a point guard either.
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