Kevin Durant was cheered before the game, then booed once it began.
His homecoming to Brooklyn was set to be raucous, but he and the Phoenix Suns silenced the crowd with relentless offensive.
“I enjoy keeping the audience quiet. Even though I love these folks here, I enjoy shutting them up,” Durant said after hitting 33 points to lead the Suns to a 136-120 victory on Wednesday night.
Durant had eight assists in his first game in Brooklyn after being dealt to Phoenix nearly a year ago. He received a mixed welcome early on before giving Nets supporters little to rejoice about with 11 points in the third quarter, when the Suns outscored them 42-26 after leading by three at halftime.
“He put the team first, went out and competed, played team-first basketball, had eight assists and several other plays where made the extra pass and allowed his teammates to play through his double-teams and played a team-first type of game and ended up with 33 and eight,” Frank Vogel, the coach of the Phoenix Suns, said. “Hell of a performance.”
Durant’s return brought the game national television coverage, but the second half was hardly competitive. The Suns, with Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal, are attempting to build a title challenger, whereas the Nets, who once had their own Big 3 of Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, are 19-28 and out of postseason contention.
The Suns won for the ninth time in 11 games, with Jusuf Nurkic adding 28 points and 11 rebounds to overpower a tiny Nets club. They improved to 3-2 on a tour that still includes games in Atlanta and Washington, Beal’s former home.
“It’s challenging. “With a team like that, you know they’re going to shoot well, especially those three guys, so we had to pick our battles tonight,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said.
Booker finished with 22 points, while Eric Gordon with 17. The Suns shot 62% from the field and 50% from three points.
Cam Thomas scored 25 points for the Nets, who had won two consecutive games. Mikal Bridges, who joined the Nets as part of the Durant trade, scored 21 points, while Lonnie Walker IV added 19.
The Nets aired a tribute video for Durant, who had previously stated on social media that he did not want one, before announcing him as the Suns’ first starter. He was cheered then, but booed when he touched the ball in the early minutes.
“That wasn’t going to stop me from just doing my job, regardless of how I was honored,” Durant said of the video, describing the Nets as a respectable organization because of how they handle past players.
The emotional swing was appropriate, given Durant’s prior statement this week that fans didn’t know how to feel about him. He provided excitement for the Nets’ first NBA championship when he and Irving joined together in 2019, but he left without ever getting near. Brooklyn won just one playoff series during that time in 2021, but Durant was dissatisfied with the Nets’ performance while he was injured the following season and requested a trade in the summer of 2022.
The Nets kept him then, but moved him to Phoenix before last year’s trade deadline after Durant reiterated his desire after Irving was traded to Dallas.
The Nets were without Ben Simmons, who suffered a bruised left knee just one game after returning from a 38-game absence due to a pinched nerve in his lower back. Simmons landed awkwardly after blocking a shot in the fourth quarter Monday, and Vaughn said the No. 1 selection in the 2016 draft’s knee was swollen, despite an MRI finding no structural injury.
The Suns blasted the game open in the third quarter, going on a 10-0 run to go up by eight points, 99-81. Durant got the first five points, and after Nurkic dunked, he scored while being fouled by Thomas, who is 7 inches shorter. Durant gazed across the baseline at the crowd for a few moments before bringing his fingers together to imply that Thomas was too small.
The Nets’ overall roster was too small. With Dorian Finney-Smith and Day’Ron Sharpe out, there was no way to match up inside, and Phoenix outrebounded Brooklyn 42-27.
Grayson Allen, Phoenix’s starting forward, missed the game after spraining his right ankle in a win over Miami on Monday.
