The league's leading scorer will miss his first game of the season. Kevin Durant played in 35 out of 72 regular season games a season ago. He's already nearly halfway towards his 2021 season total, having logged 16 games played so far. However, after appearing to tweak his shoulder back on November 8th in a 118-95 loss to the Chicago Bulls, Durant is set to sit one out in order to let that shoulder issue heal.
But just how severe is this? It hasn't kept him out of any games to date. He appeared in all five of the Nets' subsequent games but was caught on camera favoring the shoulder at times. Now he's not going to suit up for the home game against Orlando on Friday.
“I just think it's just been bugging him a little bit,” Steve Nash said, providing a pregame update. “And finding a time for him to rest is difficult. So coming out of a back-to-back, the shoulder lingering a little and him having a four-day break here in a sense for the shoulder, is just an opportunity we thought was positive for us. Unfortunately for tonight its hurts the team but in the long run it can help us so those are the decisions you have to make.”
KD was on a pretty formulaic load management program a year ago. We even called for him and James Harden (ranked 9th and 13th in total minutes played so far in the league) to get a break. Perhaps the Nets Brass heard us.
Without Kyrie Irving around, plus some recent absences from Paul Millsap, Joe Harris and Nic Claxton, much of the scoring has had to come from KD and Harden. So has he been worn out from shouldering (no pun intended) so much of the scoring burden here?
“Not really,” the Nets head coach added. “I think we always are careful there. But we've had a few games recently where [Durant] didn't play in the 4th quarter. So I think we saved some minutes here and there but you know with the shoulder it's not something we want to linger. So I think that was an opportunity tonight that we took.”
Has KD received an MRI or any imagining?
“I can't remember about the imaging,” confessed Nash. “There may have been imaging originally, but not today or yesterday. Let me put it in this context: we don't feel concerned that it will linger or that he'd miss the next game.”
Steve Nash was asked if Durant had imaging on the shoulder, keeping him out of tonight's game.
"I can't remember about the imaging. There may have been imaging originally, but not today or yesterday. Let me put it in this context: we don't feel concerned that it will linger…."— DaveEarly (@DavidEarly) November 19, 2021
Steve Nash essentially explained that because they had a couple days in between games, they felt it was a good spot [in between the win over the Cleveland Cavaliers last Wednesday and before the next game on Monday] to buy their superstar four full days off.
That they may have done an MRI on the injury suggests it's at least more serious than we originally thought. Perhaps the Nets wanted to rule out things like an AC sprain, which can take weeks or more to fully heel. The good news is it sounds like Brooklyn fully expects their top gun back for Monday's game. And it's probably not a coincidence that KD is resting against the Magic, who at 4-11 are last in the standings.
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