ESPN reacts to Kevin Durant scores 35, Grayson Allen adds 26 and the Suns beat the Raptors 120-113

ESPN reacts to Kevin Durant scores 35, Grayson Allen adds 26 and the Suns beat the Raptors 120-113

Good evening and thank you for joining us our Phoenix Suns beating the Toronto Raptors at home Downtown Phoenix 120 to 111 this is exactly the type of win the Suns need they’ve got to beat teams like this if they are going to show they are a legit playoff Contender and it was a

Big night with the NBA commissioner in the house we are waiting to hear from Phoenix Suns headge Coach Frank vogle and some of the other players and of course we’ll bring that to you live as it happens but first let’s get to Mark mclone live on the court at the footprint Center

Mark well it’s a win so you’ll take it but the story of the Season continues for the Suns a team that at times looks like they’re ready to compete for a championship and another times you’re left scratching your head this is a game where the Suns with 19 games left to

Play there aren’t many games left like this on the schedule against an opponent where you were hoping they could rest the starters but Toronto gave the Suns some great competition tonight cutting back coming back and cutting the lead to five in the second half and Kevin durett

Didn’t have his best shooting night he finished with 33 points Grayson Allen you heard right there with Amanda flugrad the eight three-pointers and the seven in the first quarter were absolutely incredible and got this place going but the Suns unable to really sustain that momentum and had to fight

Off the Raptors here down the stretch but they will take a win but you look at the rest of the schedule here it it just gets tough for you have Boston coming in here on Saturday and then a four game trip out east another trip another game

Against Boston and as we approach the playoffs here the suns are certainly going to have to earn every single win here the rest of the way guys a lot of games back to back uh as you said Mark that is going to be really rough that’s

All right we got this we got this we’ll check back in with you impressive Road win over the defending NBA champions earlier this week the Phoenix Suns returned home where they were 10 and one over their last 11 games coming into tonight and early in the game it looked

Like it might be a record setting night for at least one player but the Suns unfortunately couldn’t let fans off that easy Mark mclone joining us live from the floor of the footprint Center I mean it was closer than we wanted it to be yeah definitely closer we wanted it

To be one we wanted this to be one of those games where they could rest the starters in the fourth quarter but that didn’t happen coming off the win in Denver on Tuesday the Suns maybe a little bit of a let down the Toronto Raptors making their first trip and only

Trip to the valley this year and the Suns got off to the hot start with 39 points in the first quarter and that really I think everybody took a deep breath there and the sun’s really unable to recapture that in the second quarter nobody was hotter though than Grayson

Allen hitting seven of eight from Beyond The Arc the sun’s record for three-pointers in a game is nine which which Allen has already tied twice this year finishing the first quarter with 21 points a career high for him in a quarter but the shots stopped coming as

Easily like this team has done so many times this year they let their foot off the gas let the other team hang around after leading Toronto by as many as 19 the Raptors PED in three with less than 8 minutes to play in the fourth quarter and that had everybody sweating but the

Suns found a way to close the door Allen finished with 26 points tonight but lost his hot hand after the first quarter finishing eight of 14 from three-point range if you’re wondering 14 is the record of for threes in a game set by Klay Thompson in 2018 his only shots

Coming from Beyond The Arc tonight uh but this was Kevin Durant doing what he does best finishing the game with 30 points 58% shooting and he’s talking to the media right now inside the interview room salmon potatoes uh I was feeling good just a little bit of carryover from last game

Um it got hot on the first few and then uh guys started looking for me Kev was looking for me nerk was looking for me with those screens in DHL so I was able to get I think I got eight up in the first quarter to hit those seven curious

Obviously when you get to the second half you only get I think two shots is that just do you notice the team shifting to to give more attention to you what do you feel like leads to that because there are stretches where you’ll start hot and then won’t see the ball

Stretches yeah I mean a little bit like I’m off the ball in most of our action so if they choose to hug up and something else is going to be open um we ran a few like our stack pick and roll action where I mean I could hear the

Coach you and don’t leave them don’t leave them so I set that screen I think Brad got two or three layups off of it so um you just try to use that to our advantage like just because I’m hot behind the line doesn’t mean my threes

Have to impact the game so I can be spacing pulling Defenders out um in the fourth quarter we had that Kevin my pick and roll where they didn’t really want to switch it they didn’t want to give up the three so I was able to drive and uh

We got a couple open shots off that too so um not trying to I would have liked to get more threes up in the second half but just not trying to force it and still getting good plays offensively last thing I have for you what’s it like

To know that you can still impact the game offensively without taking a shot you establish uh yeah it feels good it it takes it’s it take it’s taken me a while to realize that like it’s kind of an a little bit like later in college

And then once I got to the league like my third year in the league where you start to realize like it’s if if I’m not getting the threes but my guy hugging up against me letting KD go to work like they stopped doubling KD cuz we were

Getting threes so if they’re going to let Katie go to work like I’ve done my job standing there cuz him one on1 is what we want yeah it’s a pretty good job standing there Grayson Allen can get so hot from behind the three-point line and you wonder what that means to come

Playoff time with a weapon like that for the Suns you know Deon Booker is going to be back at some point next week and as they head into Saturday’s game with Boston and then to Boston next week the Suns just trying to refine things see where they stand heading into the

Playoffs with 19 games to play on suns are back home to host the league leading Celtics on Saturday and that’s truly going to be a test of where they stand if we thought Denver on Tuesday beating the defending champs was kind of a a watermark there we’ll see how they they

Stack up against a very dangerous Boston team that is trending towards uh winning the East but we’ll see again come playoff time and see how the Suns stack up on Saturday night here at the footprint center now before tonight’s game the NBA officially announcing the 2027 NBA All-Star game will be played

Right here in Phoenix it was a big enough deal that Arizona governor Hobbs and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver were at the footprint center today for the announcement this will be the fourth time the valley has host of the game now in recent years the competitive Spirit we could probably say has been lacking

From the All-Star Game long season a reluctance for players to get hurt or compete in the slam dunk contest but the commissioner is determined to find a solution to make this event a true celebration of the biggest stars in basketball it’s a work in progress I I I

Don’t know exactly I think one thing that I learned I be honest in Indiana we had a theme back to basketball um you know returning to the traditional East first West format the 48 minute game I think I learned my lesson you can’t turn the clock back what was most upsetting

To me about the allstar game itself is to the extent that people away came away with the impression that our players don’t care as much they care so much it’s and and I think it’s frankly it’s it’s not really their fault it’s everyone around them is telling them

Don’t go too hard don’t get injured it’s such a long season there’s so much at stake yeah and we went into the archives at Arizona’s family look at the last time the game was played here in Phoenix back in 2009 remember this Shaq was the

Star of the show a star for the Suns dancing with the Jabba walks wonder if he’ll be able to do this again in 2027 hard to believe it’s been 18 years in between All-Star games here in downtown Phoenix now uh getting the All-Star game was one of the first things owner Matt

Isia asked Adam Silver for the commissioner when he bought the team the Valley’s also going to host the WNBA All-Star Game this summer we have the final four coming to town this spring 2026 the women’s final four so never a dull moment always big events coming here to the Valley of the sports

Guys we got it all we got it in Spades I mean and if they are looking for some suggestions on how to make the uh NBA All-Star Game a little more spicy I say bring back the dancing there you go the jaies bring back Shaq bring back the

Jabba walkies I think ja Shaq would gladly come back to to dance with the Jabba walkies for sure yeah I could I could see that happen the 18th year anniversary for sure I I I would bet that’s probably already in the works well he’s got all the icy hot he needs

To be ready for that thank you for that Frank Vogel addressing the media right now after tonight’s win let’s listen in we got going you know the ball swings in Royce got a wide open three he goes one more uh to Eric Eric I don’t think Eric made

It but just just the the awareness right you know that uh that he brings to our team keev was struggling to score in the post we get into a blender situation he had a three he goes nope I’m going to you know redrive and get one more one

More to KD KD hits it it’s a big bucket and that that that opens up the rim for him you know now he starts to get going um he defends he uh he’s a high IQ player and he’s giving us a big lift yeah we didn’t guard the three well

Enough um but they were shooting a ton of I don’t know what they ended up with percentage wise um 36% but they were on Pace to shoot over 53s at halftime and um you know that’s the way they’ve been playing of late we knew we had to uh continue our pain

Emphasis but really fly at their Shooters and um you know Grady got going early um quickly got going but you know it’s it’s a multiple effort type thing all right head coach Frank Vogal there Suns win over the Raptors 120 to 113 you can find the full press

Conference on aam.com and download our free aam news app for the live stream right now Fore [Applause] [Applause] spee [Applause] [Applause] Love And M [Applause] The Oh [Applause] For spe

ESPN reacts to Kevin Durant scores 35, Grayson Allen adds 26 and the Suns beat the Raptors 120-113