CLEVELAND — Kevin Durant has spent this season stoning up the annals of NBA history, passing Hall of Famer after Hall of Famer.
With 32 points in a win over Cleveland on Monday, Durant (26,516 points) has moved past Tim Duncan (26,496) into fifteenth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
Up next is Dominique Wilkins at 26,668. This season the Nets star has surpassed Alex English, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, John Havlicek, Paul Pierce and now Duncan, an accomplishment even he took time to relish.
“Most definitely,” Durant said. “You ought to just show up day-after-day, but sooner or later you bought to have a good time some small wins, similar to a win [over the Cavaliers]. It’s cool to have a good time that together with your team.
“So my profession, to have the opportunity to you recognize pass an all-time great legend, anyone who shifted and adjusted the sport is it’s something that I’ll call my folks about tonight and talk over and just reminisce on how we came. So it’s pretty cool to do stuff like that and I would like to have a good time those small things, but you recognize, keep pressing forward. I do know I got more to do.”
Together with his season-high fourth 3-pointer, Durant has 1,828 in his profession. He moved past Kobe Bryant (1,827) into twenty first place on the all-time list, behind Chauncey Billups (1,830).
The Nets’ streak of nine straight wins is their longest since 2005-06 and the league’s longest energetic win streak. It prolonged their season-best road win streak to 5.
The Nets are an NBA-best 10-1 in December.
Durant and Kyrie Irving have gone over 30 points in the identical game five times this season, tying Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for probably the most within the league.
Joe Harris (left knee soreness) stayed home in Brooklyn and can miss Wednesday’s game against the Hawks. Seth Curry (non-COVID illness) was added to the injury list as questionable, then downgraded to out.
“Joe’s not here with us and he won’t play Atlanta as well. Seth is non-COVID. He’s here with us and we’ll see how he feels [Tuesday]; hopefully higher,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “Joe did have an MRI, just showing some soreness and swelling. Yeah, so stay back, hopefully get that swelling out.”
Vaughn was noncommittal about Harris meeting the team for the Recent Yr’s Eve tilt in Charlotte.
David Duke Jr., Kessler Edwards, Day’Ron Sharpe and Donovan Williams were all out on G-League task.