On Friday night, the Phoenix Suns (11-8) took a tough loss against the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets (14-6), on their home court at Footprint Center, 119-111.
After winning seven games in a row, Phoenix finds themselves on a two-game skid after also dropping Wednesday’s game to Toronto, but will look to get back on track with the return of point guard Devin Booker (ankle) Saturday night when they host Memphis.
Both teams were short-handed for Friday’s game.
Phoenix was missing Booker (ankle) and Bradley Beal (back), while Denver was down their all-star point guard Jamal Murray (ankle) and Aaron Gordon (heel).
But it did not seem to faze the Nuggets, as Mike Malone’s group saw all five starters score in double figures.
The Suns had a number of players step up as Grayson Allen (13 points and nine rebounds) returned to the lineup after missing two games with an illness.
Eric Gordon (16 points) and Josh Okogie (13 points) played well off the bench.
Kevin Durant scored 30 points in the losing effort on Friday with an uncharacteristic 8-of-25 shooting night, missing all ten of his shot attempts in the second half.
Yusuf Nurkic led the team in what was by far his best outing of the season, scoring a team leading 31 points (13 of 22 FG) with six rebounds and two assists against his former team.
Denver got out to a blistering start and led most of the game, shooting a staggering 67.4 percent in the first half.
After trailing by as many as 17 in the middle of the second period, Phoenix went on a 12-3 run, cutting the Denver lead to 70-63 and gaining momentum going into halftime.
“We didn’t play with nearly enough toughness and attention to detail in the first half and was one of our worst defensive halves, but you also got to credit the Nuggets,” Phoenix head coach Frank Vogel said after the game.
The positive swing carried over into the third as Nurkic scored 13 points in the period while going back-and-forth down low against his former teammate Nikola Jokic.
Jokic’s 21 point and 16 assist double-double led the way for the Nuggets as the big man got his teammates involved all night long.
“I mean, he is a two-time MVP. Takes an effort from the team to play defense on him. He just picks apart people and teams,” Nurkic said of Jokic postgame. “That is the defending champions. They are a really good team regardless of who plays for them. They were making a lot of shots in the first half and just felt like they could not miss. Whatever they do, they are doing good, and they are a good team. Give them credit, they got a win.”
It was looking like a vintage Kevin Durant game early, as he knocked down four of his first seven shots in the first, but wound up not being able to buy a bucket for the final three periods, shooting an abysmal 4 of 21 for the duration of the game.
Coming into the game, Durant needed to score 17 points to pass Moses Malone (27,409) for 10th all-time on the NBA’s leading scorers list and accomplished the feat as he hit a layup late in the second.
“It is cool. Like I said before, it is a long journey to be up there and mentioned with the greats. Takes a lot of work and preparation, and a lot of people to help me get to that point,” Durant said about the accomplishment. “All this stuff is cool to do—shows you are getting old in the league as well. It is amazing to be amongst the greats.”
