Kevin Durant will certainly return to the Nets’ starting lineup, possibly Tuesday night against the Raptors in Tampa.
The 11-time All-Star – and newly-formed Oscar winner – began their sensory day on the bench in the Nets’ home win on Sunday. He played 20 of the 24 minutes in the second half and finished with 33 points after missing 26 of the last 31 matches with a hamstring and thigh injury.
“I think we’ll monitor it and we’ll see if we get him to start the next game or not. But the type of thing that we just want is to have the flexibility to decide game-to-game, the best for him. What is the output, and what is the best order of output, “Nets coach Steve Nash said after Sunday’s win there has been improvement. The Nets’ record in the Eastern Conference is 41-20.
“We just made sure that it loads in the second half of the minute, but it will have a lot of breaks.” He comes out of the game with a break, you will have a quarter break and a timeout. So he came out twice and broke the quarter in the middle. So we tried to manage it this way. “
Giants teammate Blake Griffin worked wonders on Sunday with Durant’s ability to skillfully bury 12 of 21 shots to step into the lineup and avoid his latest injury.
But Durant, an executive producer of the Oscar-winning live-action short film “Two Distant Strangers”, said his on-court return seemed natural, despite coming off the bench for only the third time (this season) in 874 career NBA games. .
“It’s like riding a bike. Durant said, “You fix your feet, you regain your rhythm, and I think my teammates did a great job of watching me throughout the game, and I just wanted to take the same job as I had done it.” He said, “The shots I take in practice and shooting try to get as much as possible to regain my rhythm, and as the game progresses I start to get a bit more creative.
“It was a good start. Hopefully I can build this game and keep going. “
Still, James Harden is not close to returning from his own hamstring wickets, with the Nets having played a total of seven of their 61 games in the lineup with their Big 3.
Kiri Irving was also efficient on Sunday with 34 points from 10-for-19 shooting after ending a tough night off the field (4-for-19) in Friday’s win over the Celtics.
Nash said of Irving and Durant, “I think it’s more common that they’re skilled that way, otherwise not.” “I think Kevin has shown that his scoring does not seem to be affected by a long layoff even if he is getting off [2019] Achilles [surgery] Or descending from the hamstrings, he is coming right back and his rhythm and timing are excellent. … It’s very impressive, definitely. I don’t want to underestimate how special they are. But, it is more ideal than I think than extraordinary. “
With 11 games and less than four weeks before the playoffs starting May 22, managing Durant’s minutes and maintaining his health will be paramount for Nash and the Nets’ performance team.
The rest of the schedule includes three sets of back-to-back games, including Thursdays at Indiana and Fridays at home against Portland. Nash expects the 32-year-old Durant to continue at both ends on consecutive days.
“You know it’s killing him when he’s sitting outside,” Griffin said Sunday. “It’s fun for us to see the joy of just being able to play basketball again.”
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