Kevin Durant returns as Nets face East-leading Heat
Good news, Brooklyn: Kevin Durant is back!
The Nets star said he will play in Thursday's game against the Miami Heat after missing about six weeks with a sprained left MCL.
"I feel energized," Durant said after Thursday's shootaround. "I feel grateful for the opportunity to play. It sucks being out and not being around the team. I felt bad not being able to help and contribute and try to turn some things around for us. But get an opportunity tonight and hopefully moving forward where I can inject what I do into this team and it hopefully it provides some good results."
It's a desperately needed one for the Nets, who have fallen apart without their superstar forward. Brooklyn has gone 5-16 since Durant injured his knee in a Jan. 15 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, tumbling all the way to eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
At the time of his injury, the Nets were 27-15, second in the East. The Heat lead the conference at 41-22.
Durant is averaging 29.3 points. He was leading the league at the time but would now rank third behind Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo if he had played enough games to qualify.
Can Ben Simmons sync with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving?
The Nets have struggled to find continuity this season, dealing with injuries as well as the occasional absences of Kyrie Irving, whose decision not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 has made him ineligible to play in home games, per New York City law. They also traded star guard James Harden to Philadelphia at the trade deadline, and the key piece they received in return — Ben Simmons — has yet to take the court.
Will Durant's return make a huge difference? Ric Bucher isn't so sure, and he explained why on "Undisputed."
"They need Ben Simmons to go anywhere in the postseason," Bucher said. "And he needs to be the Ben Simmons who fills all the gaps that the Brooklyn Nets have."
"I don't look at myself as that, as a savior," Durant said. "But I know what I can do and how much I can help this team and what we're missing as a group, but I'm not trying to go out there and win a game by myself tonight or make it all about me. I just try to go out there and help and be a good teammate and do what I do. I know what I bring to the table and try to do it to the best of my abilities."
Durant said it has been tough to watch his team struggle amidst all the drama and changes, while not being able to do anything about it.
"It was difficult because I couldn't calm some of the noise down with my play. That's usually the best remedy for stuff like that. So it was eating at me that I couldn't go out there and perform to take some pressure off the guys and the organization, but I'm proud of how everybody just kept pushing and kept coming to work every day, kept grinding. We know how crazy this business is — anything can happen. So we all have to be prepared and still come to work every day as professionals and I like how we did that."
Is KD enough for a Brooklyn playoff push?
Counting Thursday night's game, the Nets have 19 games left in the regular season.
"We are cutting it close," Durant said. "There's under 20 games left in the season, but that's the situation we're in, that's the circumstances we're in. So what? We got to go out there and figure it out."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
