Phoenix Suns: Kevin Durant putting up similar numbers to his MVP season 10 years ago

SALT LAKE CITY – Kevin Durant expects himself to be Kevin Durant regardless of the calendar year.

He’s averaging 30.8 points on 52.9% shooting, hitting 50% of his 3s, and playing 36.3 minutes a night through the Phoenix Suns’ first 12 games of the 2023-24 regular season – at age 35.

“I know we play in a young man's league and once you hit a certain age, regardless of how you play and how you look, it's going to always be like, 'welp, this guy's old. He's losing a step' regardless of if I haven't. I always envision if I’m playing to be at the same level I’ve always played at."

Durant delivered another special performance in Friday’s 131-128 victory over the Utah Jazz with 38 points, nine rebounds and nine assists to just one turnover to once again show he’s still that dude regardless of his age.

More on the game: What we learned as Kevin Durant leads Phoenix Suns past Utah Jazz in NBA In-Season Tournament

“I am getting old, but I still feel solid out there,” Durant continued. “I don’t feel like this is a surprise for me. May be a surprise for a couple of people, but that’s what I expect myself to do every night and hopefully I stay at this level for as long as possible, but I know people are going to continue to question my age and how I feel. They do that already.”

The Suns (6-6) face the Jazz (4-8) again Sunday at Delta Center with a heated Durant, who is averaging 33.7 points in his last four games.

“That’s what he does,” Suns forward Keita Bates-Diop said. “He scores.”

The Suns are without Bradley Beal, who will be sidelined at least three weeks rehabbing a low back strain. He hasn’t played the last two games, but the Suns won both by scoring a season-high 133 points Wednesday against Minnesota and 131 Friday at Utah.

“We’re going to be a hard team to stop,” Suns guard Eric Gordon said. “Of course, we want to be better defensively. We don’t want the other team to score like that, but we put so much pressure on the other team because we’ve got a bunch of guys on this team who can really score the ball.”

Durant, the NBA’s 12^th all-time leading scorer with 27,261 career points, has been a certified scorer, but it’s been a decade since he averaged 30-plus points in a season.

One would have to go back to his one MVP season in 2013-14 when he led the league in scoring at 32 points a game on 50.3% shooting, hitting 39.1% of his 3s – at age 25.

Ten years later, he’s producing similar numbers that his teammates think should put him in that conversation again.

The 13-time All-Star is second in the NBA in scoring to reigning league MVP Joel Embiid, who is averaging 31.9 points a night.

“Man, that’s crazy, I’m glad I’m on his team,” Suns big Drew Eubanks said. “He’s killing it right now. In my opinion, MVP frontrunner. We don’t have the record right now, but we’re getting our momentum.”

Durant capped Friday’s near triple-double night with a dagger 3 over the shorter Ochai Agbaji with the shot clock expiring to put the Suns up four with 18 seconds left.

“I was in rhythm,” Durant said. “The 3 had been feeling good all night. I had missed one to start the fourth quarter that looked good leaving my hands. So I just kept in the back of my mind I wanted to get to that shot again. I didn’t know what time it would come around, but it was a timely one and I’m glad I was able to knock it down.”

It came at the perfect time for the Suns.

“He hit a bomb and won the game,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said. “It was a big-time shot by a big-time player, but he was really terrific the whole night.”

Hitting 6-of-8 from deep, Durant held the shooter pose high over Argaji’s head to a chorus of aahhs from the sellout crowd of 18,206.

“I knew he was going to shoot it,” Eubanks said. “What was going through my mind was getting in position to get a rebound or whatever, but you get the ball to your best players and watch them go to work.”

The Jazz called timeout, Durant headed to the bench with his right hand raised and got his first of many congrats from Devin Booker, who passed him the ball after a screen and switch.

“That’s my favorite shot right there,” Booker said. “We’ve all seen it before. He tried to tell me to go attack (Lauri) Markkanen (on the switch) and I’m like, 'get the ball and do what you do.' It was nice seeing that.”

Switch or not, Durant was ready to deliver.

“I’m going to try to be aggressive regardless of who’s guarding me, but that was the play that was drawn up,” Durant said. “We wanted to set a screen and see what happens after the screen.”

Eubanks looked to a down screen for Durant to pop up. Markkanen wound up trailing after that action and then Durant got the switch by simple running into Agbaji.

“If they would’ve had miscommunication, Book would’ve had a downhill drive,” Durant continued. “If they would’ve trapped or something, then maybe I would’ve rolled. We had options out of the screen and they just did the simple thing and switched and it was on me to finish the play. I was just trying to finish the game off.”

Been there, been doing that since he had little facial hair.

“I’ve been seeing that for 16 years,” Gordon said. “We all play to win and it’s good for him to hit big shots likes that. That’s what we need.”

Playing 33 minutes, Durant shot 15-of-22 from the field and had just one turnover.

“A very, very impressive performance,” Vogel said.

Durant started the game hot, hitting his first seven from the field in scoring 24 points in the first half on 10-of-11 shooting.

Booker got him going with an assist for a corner 3 off dribble penetration to open the game as he finished with 24 points and a career-high 15 assists.

“It was insane, it was insane,” said Durant when asked about Booker’s playmaking. “From the first play of the game, got me an open 3.”

Durant hit 4-of-5 from deep in the first half.

Then Utah somehow left him open for another corner 3 in front of the Jazz bench to put Phoenix up nine, 124-115, with 3:11 left in the game.

“We had a couple of lapses late in the game on both sides of the ball that ended up kind of pushing them over the hump,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said.

Durant reminded the Jazz that there is no way to help off of Durant.

“I heard somebody on their bench say don’t leave and Lauri Markkanen left me open the corner,” Durant said. “Soon as they said that, I just thought it was funny. So I told them, next play, you can’t leave me wide open. The shortest 3 in the game, you know.”

Suns 7-footer Jusuf Nurkic located Durant.

“I just tried to do my best to finish the shot,” said Durant, who is 26-of-52 on 3s this season.

He finally turned off the Jazz with a dagger 3.

Just Durant being Durant.

Again.

Have opinions about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kevin Durant putting up similar numbers to MVP season 10 years ago