Kevin Durant faced double teams from the get-go in the Phoenix Suns‘ 120-113 win over the Charlotte Hornets at Footprint Center on Sunday. Durant made the Hornets pay for all the attention they put on him and stated postgame that he wonders why teams double him so much as it leads to easy shots for his teammates.
“To start the game, like the first possession of the game you start double-teaming,” Durant said. “I get in the post you double-team and even as they was double-teaming out top when Melo (LaMelo Ball) was on me, they would run and jump me at the three-point line to start the game.
“Sometimes it’s a little weird,” Durant stated. “I always talk to the bench about that, the opposing team, but they just telling us they rather live with my teammates shooting open shots, which is crazy to me.
“You know the law of averages, guys gonna knock those down if you keep giving them looks,” Durant continued. “And we got a healthy amount of those looks throughout the game and we was able to execute there in the fourth quarter.
“But yeah, it throws me off sometimes too when you start the game swarming and doubling and zones behind me when I get the ball and all five eyes watching me,” Durant added. “I take that as a sign of respect but I also want to go out there and play too but if you’re going to take me away, then I’m going to utilize my teammates.”
Durant finished with 27 points (11-24 FG), eight rebounds, five assists, and a steal against the Hornets. The 14-time All-Star made one crucial play after another in the fourth quarter to get the Suns the win here.
The Hornets led 104-95 with just over eight minutes left and it looked like they were going to register a second win over the Suns in a week. Durant ensured that wouldn’t happen by scoring eight points and dishing out two assists the rest of the way. Both of those assists were to rookie Oso Ighodaro, as the 36-year-old found the big man when the Hornets doubled him.
Ighodaro was one of those who benefitted from the Hornets focusing so much on Durant. He had 10 points in this game and was one of six Suns players to get to double digits. They are a very difficult team to beat when they get contributions from their role players and you’d want to see more of that moving forward.
The Suns closed out this game on a 25-9 run to improve to 19-19 on the season. They have now won three in a row to steady the ship after a rough couple of weeks.
Devin Booker Speaks On Teams Doubling Kevin Durant
The problem that Durant presents teams with is that they have to pick their poison. Double-team him and he’s going to find the open man but leave him one-on-one and he’s going to score a lot more often than not. Devin Booker was asked postgame about teams struggling to find solutions and admitted he was in the same boat once.
“Yeah, I mean I’ve been on the other side of that,” Booker said. “You wouldn’t even call it a tough shot at this point, 30,000 points in. So, it’s a business decision you have to make and the majority of the teams are going to run a double.”
At the end of the day, most teams do end up preferring to give someone else an open shot rather than have Durant go one-on-one. If those role players beat them, then so be it and that’s what happened to the Hornets.
The Suns take on the Atlanta Hawks next at State Farm Arena on Tuesday at 7:30 PM ET. It will be interesting to see what tactic the Hawks go with, in that contest.
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