The Nets appear to have avoided a serious injury with Kevin Durant, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. An MRI showed that Durant has a sprained medial collateral in his left knee and is expected to return to full strength after treatment.
Team officials are optimistic that Durant will only need four-to-six weeks of rehab work on the knee before he can resume playing, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Durant suffered the injury in the second quarter of Saturday’s game when Bruce Brown was knocked backwards into his knee while playing defense. Durant attempted to remain in the game, but decided to go to the locker room to have it checked. He underwent an MRI this morning.
The Nets, who are in a tight race for the top spot in the East, will have to survive an extended stretch without the former MVP, who is leading the league in scoring at 29.3 PPG. Eleven of their next 14 games are away from home, which means Kyrie Irving will be eligible to play.
4 to 6 weeks sounds serious to me but aye at least it’s not career threatening. Rest up KD
Yeah but if that’s all it takes, much better than season ending or 8-10 months including surgery and/or extended rehab.
How long to ramp up also? Could be 8-9 weeks before you know it. Just sayin. Bummer for KD but yay for Harden losses!
Nets have been playing with fire in ridiculous amount of minutes for Durant. He’s going to be 34 yrs old in sept and has gone through major injuries including Achilles tear. This ain’t going to end well.
Quit being morbid and base. Durant has been injured worse, came back, and was still him.
You’re out if you don’t touch the base.
Good chance for him to get rest
Actually, it’s not likely to be an opportunity for rest when rehabilitation is often quite grueling.
Any way ya go, Nets big 3 have only played 17(?) games together – cannot be good for playoff readiness.
They could get back DeAndre Jordan and have a Big 4 by playoffs tho
The trio will always be injury prone. Title window shut for Nets… the trio priority is not about winning, but just building their brand enough to maximize money on and off the court.
KD already got rings yo!
The years add up. There’s no baseness or morbity in that observation. Durant will come back, and perhaps this time he will continue to be the amazing star he has been, but injuries add up. Can he play five more years at 36.5 mpg? Hmmm.
Same thing was said last time and he came back to be the best player in the world.
I’ll take Durant corner’s
Only 4 to 6 weeks—and let’s be realistic here and assume Brooklyn won’t be rushing KD back—puts Durant back in the lineup around the beginning of March. The season ends 4/10, so, assuming no setbacks, he misses half of the remainder of the season.
Depending on how the rest of the East fares, and how much Harden can muster of his Houston days, that might be somewhat problematic for Brooklyn. Their 2 seed is 27-15. But Cleveland’s 6 seed is 26-18. Not inconceivable to think Durant returns and Brooklyn is staring at a potential play-in berth.
This was the ninja move to lose home court for the playoffs so you get 4 KI games instead of 3….
Big drop off after Cavs before the play in at least.
What’s to stop each playoff opponent’s home city to institute a temporary Vax mandate so KI can’t play roadies either?
Down the rabbit hole we go as if this thread didn’t jump in head first to begin with
Brooklyn would have to slip to the 7 seed, not the 6 seed, to have to be a play in.
That 100 percent is not going to happen.
What comes after 6?
Is it 7?
Then I think Brooklyn, if they fell to 6, would be on the precipice of falling to the play in.
I wouldn’t bet on it happening. But until we know for sure KD is healthy I think it’s at least a remote possibility.
Big injuries lately for Bulls and Nets. Advantage Bucks.
Harden is so far the best guard this season, now he can step up even more to cover for KD & KI back, well… BRK will be just fine!
Having said that is a real shame to miss KD for sooo long, hopefully he comes back soon & looking as great as he has been so far this year!
Interesting plot twist…