SEATTLE (AP) -- Raja Bell had just guarded Kevin Durant for most of the night. His postgame reward: Ice on both knees as a trainer stretched his tired legs on a training table.
"He's a long ... ," the Suns defensive whiz said of Durant, chuckling while still on his back getting stretched Thursday night.
Amare Stoudemire, playing for the third time since knee surgery a month ago, had 23 points and 11 rebounds as Phoenix rallied past the SuperSonics 106-99 in the home opener of the Sonics' 41st and most awkward season in Seattle.
But all the Suns were talking about afterward was Durant and his 27 points in his second NBA game. Specifically, they marveled about how long the skinny, 6-foot-9, 19-year-old is in arms, legs -- and fearlessness.
"Oh, he ain't shy to put that thing up," said Shawn Marion, who had 14 points, 11 rebounds and the good fortune of rarely guarding Durant until getting a key steal from him late. "You shoot 23 times, you can get 27 points, easy.
"He's a LONG guy."
Steve Nash had 18 points, including the clinching 3-pointer, and 12 assists, while veteran Grant Hill added 13 points, six rebounds and five assists in his Suns debut.
"Just before the game, they said we'd lost seven of eight season openers," Hill said, correctly. "It's seven out of nine now.
"They controlled the game. We just kind of locked down there for that three-, four-, five-minute stretch."
Chris Wilcox had 23 points and 11 rebounds for Seattle, which blew a nine-point lead it had late in the third quarter one night after getting blown out late in its opener at Denver.
Durant, who said he is seeing fewer double-teams in the NBA than he saw last season at Texas while becoming the national college player of the year, made a 14-foot jumper over Hill with 4:15 left to cut Phoenix's lead to 93-90. After Bell made a 3-pointer, Durant answered back with his own 3 to keep Seattle within 96-93 and the home crowd roaring.
"It was fun. The crowd was into it," Durant said. "They were going since the tip."
But with the score 98-93, Durant had the ball stolen by Marion. Then he charged into Bell for his sixth turnover with 2:11 left. Nash then made his third 3-pointer in three tries and Seattle never got closer.
Asked if he was surprised by his 27 points in his second NBA game, following 18 the previous night, Durant sounded incredulous.
"I wouldn't say that," he said. "I know my abilities."
Just for fun: Michael Jordan had 16 points in his NBA debut and 21 in his next game in 1984.
The night began with fireworks exploding beneath the scoreboard and fans flashing green-and-gold signs such as "This City Needs the Sonics." The crowd, announced as a sellout of 17,072 though there were a few empty seats upstairs, erupted into chants of "Save our Sonics!" during play in the second, third and fourth quarters.
Team chairman Clay Bennett, who will announce Friday his next move toward relocation to his native Oklahoma now that his deadline to get a Seattle-area arena deal passed Wednesday, watched it all from a suite. He talked most of the night with Hall of Fame center Bill Russell, a Sonics regular and resident of suburban Mercer Island, Wash.
The Sonics continually ran inbounds plays for Durant, who had equaled his opening-night total of 18 points by halftime. He made a 14-footer off a set play 4 1/2 minutes into the second half to reach 20 points and put Seattle ahead 66-61. Bell -- who was giving up 5 inches to Durant -- extended both arms with his palms toward the arena's roof and flashed a baffled look to Suns teammates.
Seattle took an 82-73 in the final minute of the third quarter on a 3-pointer by new arrival Wally Szczerbiak. But three consecutive 3-pointers by reserve Marcus Banks tied the game at 82 with 20 seconds gone in the final period.
"That got them the momentum," Durant said.
Banks was 5-for-29 (17 percent) on 3-pointers last season.
"On this team, anyone can make the big plays," Banks said.
Phoenix outscored Seattle 19-8 to take an 88-84 lead on Stoudemire's third consecutive basket with 9:05 left. Durant was on the bench for all but the last 1:07 of that run.
"He played so many minutes last night (32) and he still ended up with 39 (Thursday)," Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo said. "Sometimes you go back with him too soon and he's out of gas at the end. I was trying to get to a point to let him finish the game ... I didn't think the two plays late were caused by fatigue."
Game notes
Music star Kid Rock, 12 days removed from a fist fight at a Waffle House in Atlanta, Seahawks GM Tim Ruskell and players Marcus Trufant, Rocky Bernard, Julian Peterson, Deon Grant and Josh Brown joined Hall of Fame QB Warren Moon, University of Washington men's basketball coach Lorenzo Romar and women's coach Tia Jackson courtside. ... F-C Sean Marks was inactive after "tweaking" his back in a fall at practice Wednesday, Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. ... Seattle has lost its last three home openers. ... The Suns open at home Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers.
PHOENIX (AP) -- The Phoenix Suns got home at 4 a.m., then sleepwalked through their home opener. The result was a 119-98 rout at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers.
More games like this and Kobe Bryant might not want to leave Los Angeles.
Vladimir Radmanovic made all four of his 3-pointers and scored 19 points, and Bryant added 16 points and 11 rebounds Friday night in a game that was not nearly as close as the final 21-point margin.
The only interesting moment down the stretch came when Suns coach Mike D'Antoni became livid when Lakers coach Phil Jackson called a timeout, right after the Suns called one, with 4:55 to play and Phoenix trailing 111-78.
"Yeah, I was pretty upset," D'Antoni said. "I thought he disrespected our players. But he likes to play the mind games and that's fine. He might want to try to do it in playoff time when we bust them every year."
Jackson said he was just getting a mandatory timeout out of the way.
"He wasn't thinking straight. That's all," Jackson said of D'Antoni. "He'd understand that if he thought about it for a second. I think he thought I was trying to showboat or grandstand. But when you have a mandatory timeout coming in a minute and a half or something like that, just get it out of the way."
The capacity crowd at US Airways Center booed the home team, often, for the first time in recent memory as the Suns lost at home to the Lakers for the first time in the regular season since Steve Nash came to Phoenix in 2004.
"We're clearly not the same team we've been in the past yet," Nash said. "There are a lot of things we didn't do out there on the court, combined with the fact that we got home at four in the morning and maybe we aren't in shape for that yet."
Nash was referring to the team's arrival in Phoenix in the predawn hours from their season-opening trip to Seattle. That's one reason not to make too much of the blowout, Jackson said.
"I'm sure they got in really late and they looked like it," he said. "It's tough from their home fans in that kind of a game. We played. Don't take anything away from what we did. They just didn't play the way they usually do."
Phoenix, the three-time defending Pacific Division champion, fell behind by 17 in the second quarter, 29 in the third and an embarrassing 33 in the fourth, giving up a seemingly endless series of layups, dunks and open jumpers.
"For whatever reason, the juice wasn't there," D'Antoni said, "and it's got to be. We can't be small, light and slow, and that's what we were tonight."
Radmanovic, questionable before the game because of a sore throat, shot 6-of-7. Bryant, coming off a 45-point game in Los Angeles' season-opening loss to Houston, was just one of the guys in this one as five Lakers reached double figures.
"We expected them to be a little tired from last game, but Phoenix is a good team," Radmanovic said. "It's not a team you're going to beat by 30 points every night. It felt good."
The Lakers shot 57 percent, 8-of-13 from 3-point range. Andrew Bynum had 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Bryant said no one should get carried away by one big victory.
"We don't have to get too ahead of ourselves," he said. "We just have to stay in the minute. We have to get out of here, get some rest and get ready to practice tomorrow because that's really when you become a better team. You have to play just as hard at practice tomorrow as you did tonight."
Amare Stoudemire was 2-for-10 shooting for four points and had one rebound in 24 miserable minutes for Phoenix.
Nash had 19 points but only three assists and sat out the fourth quarter, as did most of the Lakers' starters. Leandro Barbosa led the Suns with 23, 17 in the fourth quarter. Shawn Marion had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Grant Hill scored 12 in his first home game for the Suns.
Game notes
Nash was presented with the J. Walter Kennedy citizenship award before the game. The award, announced earlier, is for outstanding community service. ... D'Antoni has 199 victories as Phoenix coach. ... The Lakers beat Phoenix for the third time in their last 13 regular-season meetings, and just the second in 12 tries with Nash in the Suns lineup. ... Former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo will be inducted into the team's "ring of honor" at halftime of Sunday night's game against Cleveland. ... The Suns were outrebounded 54-34.
Couldn't agree more (I assume you mean with respects to his game against Miami)! How good was Marion, too! Although that block by 'Zo certainly humbled him
I must say, though, (and this is coming from a huge Amare fan), he really does need to stop his bitching about calls. His ejection against Miami was his own fault ... yeah, Shaq beat him up, but as the commentators clearly state, he never should have been in that position. Oh ... and Amare's block on Haslem from behind was definitely a foul!
Massive game today by Phoenix. Along with having a 40-21 3rd quarter against the Wiz, they had 42 assists (Steve Nash had 19). They do allow a fairly high amount of points but when your offense is almost unstoppable, I guess it's not a really big deal if you don't defend so good..