Two hot teams get together for the first game of a back-to-back when the Houston Rockets visit the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday.
Both Western Conference teams have won five of their past six games. The second contest is Friday, also in Portland.
Houston star Kevin Durant may arrive with an extra bounce in his step after draining the winning 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left in Monday’s 100-97 victory over the visiting Suns.
Of course, the Durant era in Phoenix didn’t go so well. The Suns not only didn’t contend for a championship during Durant’s two-plus seasons, but they were a badly disjointed group last season when they finished 10 games below .500 to miss the playoffs.
The parting came when Phoenix traded Durant to the Rockets in the offseason.
“It was a place I didn’t want to leave,” Durant said of Phoenix. “My first time being — I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but I will — to be kicked out of a place and felt I was scapegoated for the issues we had a team last year. So yeah, it feels good to beat them in a game like that.”
Durant scored 26 points and matched his season best of 10 rebounds. He has topped 20 points in 11 straight appearances and needs just 52 points to pass legendary Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) and move into seventh place on the all-time scoring list.
Durant said he was extra motivated for the contest and thrilled to help the Rockets improve to 3-0 this season against the Suns.
“Of course, you play with a chip on your shoulder against your former team,” said Durant, “especially when they trade you.”
Durant scored 30 points against Portland when the Rockets recorded a 140-116 home win on Nov. 14. Houston has won six of the past seven meetings.
Alperen Sengun stood out with 25 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists, three steals and three blocked shots in that contest, but he’s currently sidelined with a right ankle injury.
Deni Avdija had 22 points and 10 rebounds for Portland but also committed seven turnovers.
Avdija, the reigning Western Conference Player of the Week, is averaging 32 points, 10 assists and 8.3 rebounds and has made 10 of 21 3-pointers over the last three games, all wins for the Trail Blazers.
Avdija contributed 33 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in Monday’s easy 137-117 home victory over the Utah Jazz.
He sat out the fourth quarter and only played 29 minutes with the Trail Blazers holding such a large lead over Utah.
“I would say no win is comfortable, because you still got to work for it, but we came very sharp, and we didn’t give them a chance to come back to the game, which was progress,” Avdija said. “I felt like it was so fun to play because we were just sharing the ball. We were playing defense, we were communicating, everybody was touching it. It just feels good to win in that way.”
The rout of Utah came two days after Portland notched a 115-110 road win over the San Antonio Spurs, one of the top teams in the West.
The biggest lead against the Jazz was 32 points, allowing interim coach Tiago Splitter to catch his breath.
“We don’t have too many of those,” Splitter said of the large margin of victory. “Felt good to finish the game with a certain cushion there. But still, you know, worried about them coming back in a minute and putting a run there. But I think our guys did a good job finishing the game there.”
Shaedon Sharpe added 29 points, seven assists and five rebounds for Portland. He knocked down five 3-pointers.
The Trail Blazers are on the verge of getting point guard Jrue Holiday (calf) and forward Jerami Grant (Achilles) back from injuries, though both were ruled out for Wednesday’s game.
