“I Can’t Lead the Team in Turnovers”: Kevin Durant Takes Ownership Over Suns Loss to Pacers

The Phoenix Suns lost the home game against the Indiana Pacers last night. It was a close game until halftime, but the Pacers outscored the Suns in the third quarter and took a substantial lead to win the game 120-111. At the post-game presser, Kevin Durant took full responsibility for the loss and detailed what went wrong from his end.

The team committed almost double the number of turnovers compared to their opponents. This ended up becoming the reason behind the loss.

When asked about his team’s problem with turnovers, KD said that giving up 29 points off of turnovers was bound to lead them to a loss. Although several players on the team had multiple turnovers, Durant took the responsibility on himself, “29 points off our turnovers, that’s a game. I can’t lead the team in turnovers.”

KD had a decent outing with 37 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists in 38 minutes. But he also had the most TOs in his team with 5.

The Suns superstar acknowledged that his team was great in several other aspects of the game, like shooting, but they have to plug their leak in turning the ball over. Overall, the Suns had 16 turnovers as compared to the Pacers’ nine.

KD shot 15 of 27 from the field and three of six from the three-point line, which will give Suns fans hope about the next games.

"It all starts with me."

Kevin Durant on committing five turnovers in Suns loss to Pacers.

On Devin Booker groin injury: "You hate that injuries can get in the way of beautiful basketball." #Suns pic.twitter.com/2zhinD9EdZ

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) December 20, 2024

The Suns have been on a downward spiral recently mainly due to the injuries in the camp. They have lost five of their last 10 games and are currently #9 in the Western Conference with a 14-12 record. Their guard Devin Booker left the game in the third quarter due to an injury.

Booker played throughout the first half and accumulated 17 points. However, in the third quarter, he was not seen on the Suns bench. Soon it was revealed that he was feeling tightness in his left groin and missed out on the rest of the game. When KD was asked about the injury, he said, “You hate that injuries can get in the way of beautiful basketball.”

The Suns’ head coach Mike Budenholzer also addressed Booker’s injury at the post-game press conference. He said, “We discussed a bit in the back. He can’t pinpoint the moment it happened but believes it occurred early in the third quarter.” The trio of KD, Booker, and Jusuf Nurkic was expected to put on a show this season for the franchise.

However, they haven’t had enough time on the floor together to do that as the team has been reeling from injuries.