Kevin Durant and James Harden, shown here at the 2025 All-Star Game, rank among the NBA’s Top 10 scorers.
It was Oct. 28, 2009, when Kevin Durant and James Harden first shared an NBA court.
That night in Oklahoma City, in a 102-89 win against Sacramento, Durant, who was in his third season, scored a team-high 25 points, while rookie Harden finished with five points in 13 minutes off the bench in his NBA debut.
Tonight they will share the court again when Harden’s Clippers visit Durant’s Rockets (8 p.m. ET, NBA League Pass). Since that 2009 game, Harden has amassed 28,298 more points and Durant has added 27,531 to his total, too.
This will be their first meeting with both players sitting in the top 10 of the NBA’s all-time scoring list. On Dec. 6, Harden passed Carmelo Anthony to join that elite group of scorers, one day after Durant became the eighth player to reach 31,000 career points.
Durant used a single word in an Instagram story post to celebrate Harden’s achievement: “Legendary.”
Harden’s thoughts on the achievement also began with a single word: “Blessing.”
“A testament to the work I’ve put in,” he continued. “It’s an honor, especially with somebody like ‘Melo who’s done so much for this league.”
As the chart above illustrates, both players have more moves to make over the remainder of this season.
Durant has a chance to climb as high as fifth place this season – needing 369 to pass Wilt Chamberlain for seventh, 510 to pass Dirk Nowitzki for sixth and 1,242 to pass Michael Jordan for 5th. With his current scoring average (25.3 ppg), Durant would need 15 games to pass Chamberlain, 21 to pass Nowitzki and 50 to pass Jordan (Houston has 61 games left in 2025-26).
Harden has one more move he can make as he needs 294 points to pass Shaquille O’Neal for ninth, which could come in 11 games based on his current scoring average (26.8 ppg). The next milestone for Harden would be joining the 30,000-point club (he’d be the ninth member), but that is 1,697 points away. Harden will likely need to wait until next season to join that club.
Comparing the scoring trajectories of Durant and Harden on their journey to the top 10, Durant had a significant advantage in his early years, while Harden was utilized off the bench during their time as Thunder teammates.
However, in the middle of the chart, Harden’s climb hits a sharp rise that coincides with his trade to the Houston Rockets in 2012, where he became a team’s primary scorer for the first time in his career and a true game-changer, too.
Harden thrives in isolation, utilizing the crossover, his stepback, his ability to drain deep 3-pointers and his knack for earning free throws — all while still playmaking for his teammates. It is a formula many have tried to copy, but none have mastered like Harden.
It’s fitting that his first game as a member of the top-10 scoring club comes in Houston, where Harden’s transformation from Kia Sixth Man of the Year (2011-12 in OKC) to Kia MVP (2017-18) and three-time scoring champion (2018-20) took place. During that span, he averaged a career-best 36.1 points per game in 2018-19, which ranks seventh all-time. Only Chamberlain (five times) and Jordan have ever averaged more ppg in a single season than Harden did then.
While Harden has the highest single-season scoring average between the former teammates – who also joined forces in Brooklyn for 1 1/2 seasons – it is Durant who owns the most scoring titles between them, with four, tied with George Gervin and Allen Iverson for the third-most ever, behind Jordan (10 times) and Chamberlain (seven times).
In addition to ranking eighth all-time in total points, Durant owns the fourth-highest scoring average (27.2) among all players who have played at least 500 career games. He trails only Jordan (30.1), Chamberlain (30.1) and Elgin Baylor (27.4).
Durant’s combination of longevity and consistency as a scorer can only be matched by the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron James. Durant is on pace to average 25+ points for a 17th straight season and only James has a longer such run (his 20 straight seasons of 25+ points ended in 2024-25 with 24.4 ppg).
Harden counters Durant’s consistency with higher scoring peaks. While Harden is tied with Kobe Bryant for the third-most 50+ point games (25) in league history, Durant is tied for 12th on that list with nine such games. Harden also enjoys a commanding lead in 40+ point games (107, fourth) over Durant (72, 10th).
Durant and Harden are top 10 all-time scorers, but the roads they took to get there were different.
Durant is the definition of a three-level scorer: he’s lethal from all spots on the court and can just as easily dominate a game with mid-range jumpers as he can from 3-point range. He can use his length and athleticism to get to the basket, too.
He is on pace for a fifth straight top-five finish in field goals made from the mid-range. That’s a zone Harden abandoned for much of his career as he focused on the highest-efficiency scoring opportunities: layups, 3-pointers and free throws.
As shown above, the former teammates prove that there are multiple ways to achieve greatness.
Durant ranks 24th all-time in 2-point field goals made (8,485), 12th in 3-pointers made (2,224) and seventh in free throws made (7,409). Harden is further down among the 2-point field goal leaders at 167th (5,093), but he is top five in both 3-pointers made (second at 3,256) and free throws (fifth at 8,343).
