Kevin Durant returned from an ankle injury, but suffered a tough loss to his former Nets teammates in Phoenix Wednesday night. AP Photo by Matt York
Kevin Durant shook off an ankle injury to go up against his former team Wednesday night.
Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson were more interested in having a happy homecoming in Phoenix.
Spencer Dinwiddie made sure his Nets teammates enjoyed one.
Dinwiddie scored half of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, grabbed eight rebounds and handed out seven assists as Brooklyn held on to burn Durant and the Suns, 116-112, in front of 17,071 fans at the Footprint Center.
Bridges scored 21 points and Johnson added 15 — all in the first half — in their return to the place they called their only NBA home before the Feb. 9 deal that sent Durant to Phoenix for the two forwards.
“Spencer made some good plays,” Bridges noted after the Nets improved to 1-1 on their five-game West Coast swing with their seventh win in the last nine games.
Durant’s brilliant but ultimately star-crossed tenure in Downtown Brooklyn resulted in one playoff series win and trade demands throughout the summer that preceded his exit.
The two-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player hadn’t seen the Nets (13-10)since, and was questionable to suit up for this potential reunion due to a twisted left ankle that kept him out of the previous two contests.
Durant returned and poured in 27 points on 9-of-18 shooting, but Bridges and Johnson had the last laugh.
“Of course you want to come here and get a win. We needed it too,” Bridges admitted two days after Brooklyn opened its longest trip of the campaign with a 131-118 loss in Sacramento Monday night.
It might not have happened without the late-game heroics of Dinwiddie.
The 6-foot-5 point guard answered Durant’s pull-up jumper with a…
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