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There always are questions regarding how successfully any athlete can come back from a major injury, and a ruptured Achilles tendon often is near the top of that list.
Kevin Durant is obliterating that narrative through the first dozen games of the 2021-22 season, connecting on a career-best 58.5 percent shooting percentage in his second year back from the Achilles surgery he underwent in June 2019.
The four-time NBA scoring leader currently sits atop the league rankings in that category, netting 29.5 points per game, which is more than two full points ahead of former Warriors championship teammate Stephen Curry (27.4). That represents Durant’s highest scoring average since he won that individual title for the fourth time in five seasons for the Thunder in 2013-14.
The 33-year-old Durant’s offensive efficiency has not been higher this season than it was in Wednesday’s 123-90 win at Orlando, when he hit 11 of 12 shots (including both from 3-point range) and scored 30 points in 29 minutes.
Durant’s excellence already has spawned legitimate questions regarding whether he’s playing as well or better than at any time in his 15-year career, an amazing discussion since he missed the entire 2019-20 season post-surgery.
“It’s hard to say, because he’s been playing like this for the majority of his career,” teammate Joe Harris said when asked that question before Wednesday’s win. “He’s one of the best ever to lace them up and play. I know that every night he comes out, he’s trying to prove that he’s the best.
“He has an elite mindset where he comes in and, regardless of who we’re playing against, he holds himself to a high standard. So that’s probably what it is more so than anything else, where he’s coming out with a mindset to prove that he’s one of the greatest to do it every night.”
Durant missed more than half of the Nets’ 72 regular-season games in 2020-21, largely due to a nagging hamstring injury. He averaged 26.9 points and a career-low 33.1 minutes over his 35 appearances. The 11-time All-Star did play — and shine — in all 12 of the Nets’ postseason games, logging 40.4 minutes and a team-best 34.3 points per game.
Durant’s play has fronted the surging Nets (8-4) to six wins in their past seven games entering Friday’s visit to New Orleans against the league-worst Pelicans (1-11). Zion Williamson (broken foot) hasn’t appeared in a game yet this season, and Brandon Ingram has missed the past six games with hip injury.
The Nets’ close-out of the Magic (3-9) — featuring a 25-4 run bridging the final two quarters — similarly came against one of the teams with the worst records in the league, but it was an important bounce-back effort following a rough loss two nights earlier in Chicago.
“It just shows growth on our part,” James Harden said after Wednesday’s game. “We’ve been preaching especially when we’re up going into the fourth quarter, it’s an opportunity to show our championship habits. Just being solid, making sure we get stops, and offensively making sure that the ball is moving and popping.
“It was a great effort from us, especially [as] a bounce-back. … This is basketball, it’s a long season. As much as we try not to have it happen, there’s going to be some bad possessions, bad quarters and bad games. The quicker we can get rid of it and bounce back and keep pushing, the better our team will be individually and as a collective unit.”
Especially if Durant is going to lead the way with some of the finest play of his already stellar career.
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