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Kevin Durant is returning to a wildly different Nets team than he last played with.
But for the Nets, all that matters right now is Durant is returning.
After nearly seven weeks of watching what had been a second-place team charge as fast as it could down the standings, the superstar was not listed on the injury report and will be returning to the court Thursday.
“The return,” the Nets’ team account wrote on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon, alongside a mash-up of Durant images, a day before a Barclays Center game against the Heat.
Miami (41-21) sits where the Nets once did — atop the Eastern Conference — for the first few months of the season. When Bruce Brown was pushed into Durant’s left leg on Jan. 15, the Nets were 27-15 and behind only the Bulls.
After a disastrous 5-16 stretch while Durant recovered from his sprained MCL — and while Kyrie Irving was only a part-time player, James Harden was forcing his way out from the freefall and Ben Simmons was acquired but still has not seen the court — the face of the Nets has to be their savior immediately.
Brooklyn is eighth in the conference and closer to missing the playoffs altogether (three games ahead) than it is to leaping its way into the top six (4.5 games back).
Durant had been averaging 36.5 minutes — his most since the 2013-14 season — prior to the injury. He might need to play major minutes right away, especially because after the league-best Heat will be the Celtics (sixth in the East), Hornets (ninth) and Harden’s 76ers (third).
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