After being sidelined for nearly two weeks due to health and safety protocols, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse was cleared to return today and guided the team through practice, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports. Nurse expects to be back on the sidelines Thursday as Toronto starts the second half of the season against the Hawks. “I feel really rested, rejuvenated and ready to go,” he said (Twitter link).
Nurse doesn’t expect any of his assistant coaches who were also in the protocols to return tomorrow, although he says a couple of them are close. The team probably won’t have a full staff available until sometime next week. Nurse declined to speculate on when the five Raptors players who are in the protocols will be cleared to return (Twitter link).
He also took issue with rumors that the outbreak was caused by improper mask use among the coaching staff, tweets Blake Murphy of The Athletic. “I don’t think anybody would have any idea what they’re talking about,” Nurse said. “… That is a really unfair, very speculative thing to say.”
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Blake Griffin has joined the Nets, but he won’t make his season debut Thursday night. He is listed as out due to left knee injury management, tweets Alex Schiffer of The Athletic. Griffin practiced with the team today and said his knee feels fine. However, he hasn’t played in nearly a month, so Brooklyn is trying to work him back into game condition (Twitter link). Coach Steve Nash sees Griffin as a “small-ball five” who can hit open three-pointers and help with playmaking (Twitter link).
- Kevin Durant will also sit out Thursday, marking the 10th straight game he’ll miss since straining his left hamstring last month, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Nash said Durant will have another scan on the hamstring next week (Twitter link). There was bleeding in the last scan, and the team realized that he might miss a month or more (Twitter link). Nash added that the Nets‘ medical staff doesn’t believe the current injury is related to the ruptured Achilles that Durant suffered in 2019 (Twitter link). “He hasn’t played in a month,” Nash said. “So no matter what the scan says, there will still be an appropriate ramp-up time to make sure we put him in a position to finish the season strong.”
- Sixers coach Doc Rivers missed today’s practice because of illness and it’s uncertain if he’ll be able to coach tomorrow, tweets Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Rivers’ condition isn’t related to COVID-19.
So pretty much the position he should have been playing in Detroit
I’m guessing the Nets will resign Shumpert and Roberson to ten-day contracts tomorrow to have bodies available before Durant and Griffin are ready to return. They will continue to be placeholders until the Nets are ready to sign or trade for other players.
“Speculative”? The coaches work sometimes in front of the camera and Nurse can famously act excited. I would tend to believe the rumor. If anyone can make their words understood, it is someone who is hollering, but it is hard to restrain the urge to pull one’s mask down to get someone’s attention.
If anyone is keeping track of any HC, Raptors/Nurse would be the first choice to observe by someone (not me) from two nations or the distant state of temp home Florida.
Sixers play Nets April 14. By then they should both have full squads. We want to watch this
So you are saying that……
NURSE needed a Nurse
(or was it that NURSE needed a DOC?)
AND
DOC needed a Doctor
(or was it that DOC needed a NURSE?)
AND
Durant needs BOTH a NURSE and a DOC !!
Durant might just need a Shaqiatrist at this point. He needs to get past the mental blocks keeping him from dominating again.
KD was the MVP of The Finals almost 3 years ago, and the regular season MVP almost 7 years ago, but he’s just no longer that guy.
He was incredible this year. What are you saying? if anything, he had even more responsibility than ever this year, playing minutes at the 5, and being on an island alone defensively for them. Putting up numbers similarly to his big year in GS. Like as impressive as it gets. The only thing was he was playing a lot of minutes, which is something to question coming off the achilles. It was fair to question what he might look like before the season, but in terms of ability, there is zero question there now
Oh boy! What on earth are you talking about WallyWood?
KD when he played this year, he was playin’ the best ball of his career, at the highest level he has, he was an early favorite for the MVP!!!
Nets are toast
“when he played.” consistently available is the most important skill.
Nurse is quite right, it doesn’t matter what people thinks or believes… no one knows what happened!
The bottom line is that if you breath you can catch the virus, there is no magical way to stop it!
Masks certainly won’t, actually they are a very unhealthy thing to wear, more bacteria in masks than anywhere else, go figure!