Pandemic plays havoc with Nets
Nets star sees limited minutes amid confusion over COVID protocols
Durant COVID saga backdrop to Raptors’ win in Brooklyn,
The weird realities of pandemic basketball hit hard Friday night.
Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant was going to play, then wasn’t allowed to play, then got clearance to play and finally had to stop playing in the third quarter of a truly odd Nets-Raptors game in Brooklyn.
The Durant saga underscores the oddities in a testing/contact tracing world the NBA is trying to navigate through this regular season.
It put a damper on, and added considerable confusion to, a delightful offensive display by both teams but highlights the inherent difficulty with pulling off games and seasons with daily testing, contact tracing and other aspects of dealing with a raging pandemic.
“I think there’s always levels of concern, for sure, but in saying that I think that you’re kind of in the heat of a game and you don’t really know what the deal is,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said.
“There’s so many chain-reaction protocol things you just don’t really know sometimes, like I guess if somebody would have come over and said it’s a positive test or something, then whatever. Just gotta keep doing it, keep playing.”
The game itself was delightful as Kyle Lowry simply willed the Raptors to a 123-117 win with typical fourth-quarter brilliance.
Lowry finished with a seasonhigh 30 points, seven assists and five rebounds and Pascal Siakam added 32 points as the Raptors played one of their best games of the season.
“I think any win for us right now is a big win,’ Siakam said. “We lost so many games that we could’ve won and we ended up in a position where we have a losing record so any win for us is a big win. A big game on the road against a team like that, as talented as them, it’s a good win for us.”
Durant was originally among the Nets starters, but was pulled minutes before game because of the league’s ubiquitous “health and safety protocols.” The Nets said it did not have to do with a positive test for the veteran forward, and he was cleared to play about halfway through the first quarter. But midway through the third quarter he was pulled for the rest of the night because of the same protocols.
He ended up playing 19 minutes and it is still to be determine what, if any, short-term implications the confusing evening will have.
The NBA said Durant, who had returned three negative tests in 24 hours before the game, interacted with a person who had returned an inconclusive test. When that test was later deemed positive, Durant was removed from the game in “an abundance of caution.”
“Durant was initially held out of the game while that result was being reviewed. Under the league’s health and safety protocols, we do not require a player to be quarantined until a close contact has a confirmed positive test, the league said. á After 54: It was going to be virtually impossible for Fred VanVleet to replicate the shooting magic of Tuesday night, when he hit a career high 11 three-pointers as part of a franchise-record 54-point night against Orlando. VanVleet missed his first six three-point attempts on Friday and finished 1-for-9 from behind the arc as part of a 11-point game. á Points galore: The Raptors knew they would have a chance to score a lot against a Nets team that gives up points like few other teams in the league.
“We’re as much in the observing and learning category as we are in ‘This is our vision,’ ” Brooklyn coach Steve Nash said before the game. “It’s still early for this group, but we know that is an Achilles heel. That’s something that has to be a priority for us.” á Bloody night: The physical nature of the game was never more obvious that seeing both Lowry and Norm Powell of the Raptors walk off the court at different times with blood streaming from cuts. But neither missed a minute of play because of the injuries.