Kevin Durant celebrated passing ‘legend’ Tim Duncan in scoring after the win over the Cavs, as the Nets star became the 15th leading scorer in NBA history with a 32-point performance
- Kevin Durant turned in another great performance as the Nets beat the Cavs
- And in doing so he passed Spurs icon Tim Duncan on the all-time scoring chart
- Duncan scored 26,496 total points in a long and storied playing career
- Durant could figure in the top 10 scorers by the end of the season
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Kevin Durant was able to celebrate two wins on Monday night as the Nets stayed hot with a 125-117 win over the Cavaliers and the star forward moved up in the record books.
Durant poured in 32 points in the win, and in doing so passed Tim Duncan for the No. 15 on the NBA’s all-time scorers list.
In fact, the 34-year-old needed just 14 points to overtake the former Spurs big man, which he did in the first half as he put in another fine performance.
Kevin Durant scored 32 points against the Cavaliers in Monday night’s win for the Nets
‘You want to just show up every day, but at some point you’ve got to celebrate some little wins,’ Durant said after the game.
‘To pass an all-time, great legend, like someone who moved and changed the game, it’s something I’m going to call my folks about tonight and talk about and reminisce about how we got here
‘So it’s pretty cool to do stuff like this. I like to celebrate those little things but keep moving forward, I know I still have a lot to do.’
A two-time MVP and 15-time All-Star, Duncan was the leader of Spurs teams that dominated the league in the 2000s.
Tim Duncan played 19 years with the Spurs and won five titles with the team during that time
From 1999-2007, the team won four titles, with Duncan also getting a final ring in 2014 and being inducted into the Hall of Fame last year.
He scored 26,496 points, while Durant now has 26,516.
With Brooklyn leapfrogging Cleveland to become No. 3 seed in the East, Durant shot 10-18 from the field and 5-8 from three-point range, while totaling nine rebounds and five assists.
The win means that Brooklyn has now won nine straight games, and their 20-7 record since Jacque Vaughn took over as head coach is the league’s best mark in that span.
Duncan spoke after being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year
As for Durant’s personal accolades, his next hurdle is topping Dominique Wilkins’ 26,668 points, though he has a good chance of breaking into the top ten by season’s end.
Moses Malone (27,409 points) is currently just 893 points ahead of Durant, who would average 18.6 points per contest if he plays all of the Nets’ remaining 48 games.
He is currently averaging 30.0 points per contest.
