Kevin Durant’s fitness is critical to the Nets’ title hopes.
Kevin Durant elected to enter the game off the bench.
Durant said that Nets head coach Steve Nash asked him if he wanted to start or come off the bench in his first game back from injury.
“I felt like coming off the bench would make it more difficult for me to focus in and lock in, so I decided to see how it worked,” the All-Star forward explained. “If I had shot poorly, I would have been livid that I was brought off the bench, but I was able to make a few shots. However, it was an excellent exercise for me to reintroduce myself to the routine.”
Durant returned to the court against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday for the first time after a thigh contusion sent him to the locker room early on April 18. The meeting with the Heat was only his fifth after missing 23 games with a strained hamstring suffered Feb. 13 in Oakland.
And that game against the Warriors was only his 19th as a Net, following a season-ending Achilles rupture.
Durant has had a difficult season, which has been exacerbated by his injury absences and a pair of NBA health and safety protocol violations earlier this season.
Blake Griffin said of Durant, “One of my favorite things about him is how much he likes to play basketball.” “You know how he feels when he’s sitting out. Simply seeing the excitement of being able to play basketball again is enjoyable for us and enjoyable for me.”
Durant has spent more time off the court than on it since signing his contract in Brooklyn two summers ago. That is why he received a standing ovation from the Barclays Center crowd of 1,773 as he waited at the scorer’s table to sign into the game.
And it’s why they applauded him even more as he walked off the court Sunday after leading the Nets to a victory over the Western Conference’s second-seeded Suns. Durant didn’t miss a beat, despite roadblock after roadblock attempting to derail him.
“I believe Kevin has shown that his scoring is unaffected by a lengthy layoff, whether it was coming off the Achilles or the hamstring,” Nash said. “Seems to re-establish his rhythm and timing. It is, without a doubt, very impressive.”
At the eight-minute mark of the second quarter, Nash dialed Durant’s number. The Nets were five points down at the moment. They went on to win by a score of 128-119, leading by as many as 16.
Durant was instrumental in the turnaround. He surpassed his own expectations, scoring 33 points in 28 minutes. On his way to the rim, he fired over defenders, barreled through them, and spliced a couple of them.
“It’s similar to riding a bike. You establish your footing, your rhythm, and I believe my teammates did an excellent job of looking for me during the game,” Durant said. “I simply desired to return to the job that I had done. I try to get to those shots as much as possible during practice and shootaround to establish my rhythm, and as the game progressed, I began to become a little more creative. It was an excellent start. Hopefully, I will expand on this success and continue.”
Durant’s ability to stay steady on the bike remains an open question. The Nets are on the verge of establishing an all-time offensive record. They pounded the Suns for 128 points, leaving Phoenix head coach Monty Williams dejected following the game.
Durant’s minutes were effectively used by the Nets, who rested him for the entire first quarter and gave him rope to play 20 of the team’s 24 second-half minutes. If he can stay fit, which is the greatest “if” he’s ever faced in this stage of his career, the Nets will remain the overwhelming favorite to win it all.
“We’ll have to wait and see. I believe we will watch it and decide whether or not to start him in the next game. However, that is the type of thing for which we want to retain the versatility to determine game by game what is the optimal output for him and the optimal order of the output,” Nash explained. “And tonight, we simply ensured that he would have plenty of breaks despite the fact that he would load up in the second half of minutes. He’d take a break from the game, you’d take a quarter break, and you’d have timeouts. As a result, he appeared twice with a quarter-hour break in between. As a result, we attempted to handle it in that manner.”
