Durant brings energy, unloads 39 in Rockets victory
HOUSTON—He may be the veteran leader of a young group of relentless guys, but Kevin Durant wants to make one thing clear.
“I bring the energy,” he told ESPN on Friday.
After his performance in the Houston Rockets’ 110-105 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, no one is going to doubt that.
Durant scored 39 points and made a season-best six three-pointers as the Rockets scored a key victory to add some sense of steadiness to a month that has been shaky so far.
“We’re a physical group that plays with a lot of energy, defense,” he said. “It’s a matter of us making shots and tonight we made threes more.”
Alperen Sengun added 25 points with 14 rebounds to help the Rockets bounce back after a blowout loss to Oklahoma City Thursday night.
A 6-2 run by the Timberwolves, with four points from Julius Randle, got them within 105-102 with about 90 seconds to go. Sengun fouled out soon after that and Jaden McDaniels made one of two free throws to get Minnesota within two points.
Durant made two free throws with under a minute left before Randle turned the ball over and Durant was fouled again. He made two more free throws with 22.1 seconds left to seal the victory.
Durant’s big shooting night came after he missed all five three-pointers against the Thunder.
Clippers triumph
Randle had season-high 39 points for the Timberwolves on a night when Anthony Edwards missed a second straight game with a foot issue.
The Timberwolves trailed by six points after a basket by Bones Hyland before Rudy Gobert missed a chance to close the gap by missing three of his next four free throws.
Durant knows that he will need his young teammates to step up if the Rockets want to end the month on a strong run.
“We need everybody to keep contributing if we want to keep winning,” he said. “For the most part, they (young teammates) are just enthusiastic players who enjoy getting better and I feed off that energy.”
In Toronto, James Harden had 31 points and 10 assists, Jordan Miller scored 19 points and the Los Angeles Clippers extended their winning streak to five games by beating the Toronto Raptors, 121-117, in overtime.
Ivica Zubac had 16 points and 14 rebounds, Cam Christie scored 16 points and Kris Dunn had 15 as the Clippers won for the 12th time in 14 games since starting the season 6-21.
Toronto’s Scottie Barnes scored 24 points and Brandon Ingram had 19.
The Clippers are 7-14 on the road. They’ve won four of their past five away from home.
Kawhi Leonard missed his team’s lone regular-season visit to Toronto because of a sprained right ankle. Leonard won the 2019 NBA championship with the Raptors.
