The Brooklyn Nets are set to face the Washington Wizards Wednesday at Capital One arena. The Nets have played all but four games without Kyrie Irving this season, but things always seem to be in flux with this squad right now, so it leads us to the type of question which has been key all year long: is Kyrie Irving playing vs Wizards?
Is Kyrie Irving playing vs Wizards?
Right now the Brooklyn Nets are 27-16, third place in the East. But they're just a half game out of first place, behind the 27-15 Chicago Bulls. The same Bulls who beat the Nets twice when Irving was unavailable, and got absolutely smashed 138-112 when the seven-time All-Star was out there with Kevin Durant and James Harden.
In games Irving has not appeared in, Brooklyn is 25-14, as they're now 2-2 with him. Of course, the Big 3 have only been available in two games this season, winning both of those. The other win was vs. the Indiana Pacers, when Lance Stephenson tried to steal the show but came up short.
One thing that has hurt Brooklyn ever since they signed Kevin Durant and Irving back in 2019 has been injuries. Despite acquiring James Harden via trade a year ago, the issue still persists. Kevin Durant sprained the MCL in his left knee recently vs. the New Orleans Pelicans. He was given a 4-6 week timeline to recover.
After a recent loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Irving was asked if the injury to Durant might influence his own thinking at all on getting vaccinated. If Irving were to get the jab he would be eligible to play in home games as well as road games. Without the NBA's leading scorer, Durant, in the lineup the team needs Irving more than ever. His part-time status is now under the microscope even more than it had been.
“I just don’t want to bring science into this,” answered Irving. “And it always gets wrapped up into I’m asked questions all the time about ‘what’s my status’ and I’m like man if you were in my position it would be easy for someone to say well ‘why don’t you just get vaccinated’ but you’re not. And that’s just the reality of it and I’ve made my decision already and I’m standing on it.”
The rest of his eye-opening response on vaccination status is certainly worth reading.
Before KD went down, head coach Steve Nash recently said he wanted to be cautious with Kyrie’s return to play program. “We would love for it to be gradual and a strategic allocation of minutes not just like, ‘Alright, great, we got a new Ferrari and we’re gonna wrack up miles,'” the Nets coach explained.
But in the team's first full game without Durant, Irving logged 38 minutes, so it's possible that cautious approach is out the window now.
Irving also had a close call in a game last week vs. the Portland Trailblazers. He called out Blazers' Nassir Little for a dangerous play. Irving would avoid serious injury, however, and be fine.
He comes into the road battle vs. Bradley Beal and the Wizards without injury designation. The game is not in Brooklyn where he cannot play. And neither he nor James Harden are injured. So that answers this one. Is Kyrie Irving playing tonight? Yes.
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