Kevin Durant made history, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Phoenix Suns from falling below .500 with under 50 games remaining in the regular season.
Durant became only the eighth player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points with a game-high 34-point effort in Tuesday’s 119-112 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies (36-17).
The Suns (26-27) are 11th in the West. If the playoffs started today, they’d miss out on the play-in, making it one of the most disappointing and underachieving seasons in franchise history.
The Suns play Wednesday at Houston in the second of a back-to-back before going into the All-Star break. Here are takeaways from Tuesday’s loss:
Historic night for Durant can’t hide team’s struggles
The crazy part about this milestone is Durant is on a team that shows no signs of competing for a championship. That leads to more questions about his future with the Suns and dims the lens a bit on his historic achievement.
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Durant was asked after Tuesday’s game if he wants to end his career in Phoenix after being part of trade talks right before last week’s trade deadline.
A laughing Durant said, “I’m going to focus on Houston tomorrow. Ain’t going to go there right now.”
Durant should be able to ride this all-time accomplishment for a few days even in today’s 4K 24/7 news cycle.
He just joined LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki and Wilt Chamberlain as the only NBA players to score at least 30,000.
Durant will instead continue to find himself in the middle of conversations about the Suns’ struggles and where he will play next season.
The fans gave him a resounding ovation. The video tribute was well done.
His teammates showed him love. TNT televised the game.
All the elements were in place, but the Suns trailed the Grizzlies, 93-82 with 1:11 left in the 3rd quarter after being down by as many as 19 points in the first half.
Durant remains a great player who will move up the scoring list if he stays healthy, but this season has been a mess.
The Suns are a bad team. The roster has holes that late clutch shooting masked in Phoenix’s 8-1 start. They have the toughest remaining schedule. The Suns are running out of time to fix this.
Durant’s historic night isn’t changing that.
Bol Bol shines in start, rotations remaining puzzling
Coach Mike Budenholzer keeps leaning on the idea of finding the right combinations.
He took that to an unforeseen place Tuesday night.
While Bol Bol played well the previous two games, Budenholzer choosing to start him after hardly playing him in the first 50 games of the season is wild.
Bol delivered a double-double of 18 points and 14 rebounds to go with four blocks. He’s earned extended minutes, but struggled in transition defense as did the entire team in allowing 19 transition points.
Bol also attempted more shots than Booker (16 to 13) as he launched 10 3s (made three).
Budenholzer is all about generated 3s as the Suns went just 12-of-44 Tuesday, but in what world is Bol attempting more shots than the franchise’s all-time leading scorer?
Yes, Booker was facilitating in finishing with nine assists, but he could use more shot attempts to help increase the chances of scoring more than 17 points.
Budenholzer wants more Bol, saying the Suns are going to “push this envelope,” but staying committed to the idea if the player struggles is something he hasn’t done much of this season.
Budenholzer started Royce O’Neale instead of big Nick Richards in the second half less than a month after putting Richards in the starting lineup in just his second game with the team after acquiring him in a trade.
He played two-way player TyTy Washington Jr. 13 minutes and rookie Ryan Dunn only five. Washington Jr. pushes the pace, but he went 0-for-6 from 3 in scoring two points.
Dunn has played some of this team’s better defense, is the guy who replaced Bradley Beal in the starting lineup, but Tyus Jones, who continues to struggle on defense, logged 32 minutes.
Rookie Oso Ighodaro has fallen out of the rotation after being part of the three-man big rotation with Mason Plumlee and Jusuf Nurkic, who has since been traded. Igodaro just returned from a G League assignment.
The rotations can be interpreted as Budenholzer just trying anything, but nothing is working, or isn’t working well enough to help the Suns climb out of this mess of a season.
Injury update
The Suns won’t have Cody Martin or Beal against the Rockets. Beal missed his third straight game with a left great toe sprain while Martin has been out with a sports hernia.
Phoenix acquired Vasa Micic, Martin and a 2026 second-round pick from Charlotte in trade that sent Nurkic and a 2026 first-round selection to the Hornets.
Micic sat out Tuesday with a left ankle sprain, but is working towards being available Wednesday. He’s a hard-nosed competitor who plays with physicality, qualities the Suns could use.
Martin prides himself on defense, but he can also knock down 3s. He could address Phoenix’s perimeter defense, which has been lacking all season.
Durant returned from missing three games with a left ankle sprain and Grayson Allen played after sitting Saturday’s loss to Denver with left knee soreness. While Durant had a strong return, Allen managed just nine points, hitting 1-of-4 from 3, in 20 minutes.
Budenholzer addressed Beal’s status, saying, “I think the (All-Star) break is going to be good for us and good for Brad as far as his health and his toe. I don’t want to say for certain, but I think there is a lot of hope that coming out of the break, he’s going to be in a good place.”
Beal has played just 37 games this season. He’s already been ruled out Wednesday.
If he plays the remaining 28 games after the break, that’ll put him at 65. Beal hasn’t played more than 60 games in a regular season since playing all 82 games in 2018-19.
The Suns would definitely take that. Whether they get it is far from a given.
What Suns said after loss
Mike Budenholzer on Bol Bol: “I think he’s going to bring something or can bring something to us. Shot blocking, rebounding, and then an ability to space the floor and make 3. Impressive how he stayed ready and impressive at what he’s done with this opportunity.”
Kevin Durant on 30K points: “All the people that helped me out throughout this journey, I always talk about them, how much they mean to me and how much they impacted to help me get to this point, so just grateful for my teammates, coaches, family, friends that have supported me and invested in me as a basketball player.”
Bol Bol on opportunities: “Staying ready. Keep doing what you have to do off of the court. So, when your number is called, you are ready to play and then just play with a lot of effort. Those are two things that I have been standing on.”
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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