It's been a long-time coming: tonight Kevin Durant finally makes his season debut for the Thunder. He does it against the New Orleans Pelicans and Anthony Davis, a player Durant called "next in line" to win an MVP award.
26-year-old Durant and 21-year-old Davis are friends from their shared Team USA experience in 2012, but they haven't met on the court since December 12, 2012 because of injuries.
It looked like it was Durant who would be sidelined for this meeting, still recovering from surgery on his fractured right foot.
However, Durant practiced full Monday and will return to the starting lineup for the Thunder in New Orleans.
"I'm excited to get back out there with my teammates," Durant said after Tuesday morning's shoot-around at the Smoothie King Center. "It's been a long 6½ weeks just trying to get better and get my foot right. The training staff did a great job, so I'm just looking forward to playing tonight."
It remains to be seen how conditioned Durant is after his injury. Coach Scott Brooks plans to restrict Durant to about 30 minutes of play.
"I know it's going to be a little bit different for me not having played, then going out there and playing the highest level of basketball," Durant acknowledged. "But I'm looking forward to going out there and seeing where I am and playing as hard as I can for my team."
For Davis, he took the news Durant would indeed play in stride.
"We scouted and prepared like he was going to play," Davis said with a shrug.
The Pelicans are focusing on attempting to pull themselves out of a 3-game slump where they've suffered mightily on offense.
The first 12 games of this season, New Orleans was averaging 103.9 points per game and shooting .461. In their last 3 losses, the Pelicans averaged 86.7 points per game on .357 shooting.
"We've got to move the ball from side to side," Davis said. "We've had spats with crazy low ball movement. That's a key for us. If you don't have a play, get off the ball and create one for someone else."
It doesn't help that the Thunder has held opponents to 11 of its last 12 opponents under 100.
While the Pelicans have their work cut out for them tonight, Durant couldn't have chosen a better venue to make his return: he's scored at least 20 points in all 11 of his career road games in New Orleans.
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