Warriors sprained by KD’s knee injury
OAKLAND, California — Kevin Durant is down for the immediate future with a knee injury, and that’s a huge blow on both ends of the floor for the playoff-bound, championship-chasing Golden State Warriors.
Stephen Curry’s crew is going to have to carry on withoutKD—perhapsforthe remainder of the regular season, and maybe longer.
Durant will be out indefinitely after he sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee and bruised a bone in his leg during Tuesday night’s loss at Washington, leaving the Warriors without their shot-blocking big man, who also does it all on offense.
“Heal up my Man ... we will holditdowntilyou’rebackon the court with us. Prayers up!” Curry, the two-time reigning MVP, tweeted on Wednesday.
The NBA’s top team will push toward the playoffs without its leading scorer and rebounder. For the month of March, at least.
The Warriors said on Wednesday their medical staff hasn’t ruled out a Durant return before the end of the regular season, though nobody is making predictions at this stage.
“At this time it’s just speculation to guess when that is,” general manager Bob Myers said in a conference call.
“He’ll heal as his body heals. And when he’s healed and our doctors clear him and we feel like it’s safe, he’ll play. I want to know as much as you guys, but at this point the plan is just to re-evaluate him and see where he’s at in four weeks.”
The All-Star forward hyperextended his knee early in the Warriors’ 112-108 loss to the Wizards and later underwent an MRI exam, which revealed a Grade 2 (moderate) sprain in the knee as well as a bruised tibia.
Durant is scheduled to be reevaluated in four weeks, so if he is fully healthy then, that would leave about two weeks remaining in the regular season.
He was scheduled to return to the Bay Area on Wednesday and immediately begin rehabilitation.
The Warriors headed for Chicago to continue a grueling stretch of eight games in 13 days with a cross-country trip.
They return to Oakland for one game then a back-to-back at Minnesota and San Antonio on March 10-11.
On a Wizards possession under their basket less than a minute into the game, Washington center Marcin Gortat pushed Warriors center Zaza Pachulia, who fell into Durant’s left leg.
While Myers isn’t on the trip andonlysawtheplayonTV,he said the team’s video staff mighthaveotherangleshecan see — though in speaking to Durant there wasn’t immediate concern about the play being intentional.
“These things happen in sports,” Myers said. “Nobody’s raised that question on our side. I don’t know if it’s being raised outside of us.
“Other than just being disappointed that he’s injured, nobody’s mentioned anything like that.”
The Warriors became the earliest team in NBA history to clinch a playoff berth when they beat the Nets on Saturday and are now focused on locking up the No 1 seed in the Western Conference.
LeBron James, whose Cleveland team beat the Warriors in Game 7 for last year’s championship before Durant came from Oklahoma City, saw the injury.
“I hope it’s not serious,” James said. “We’ll see.”
Durant leads the Warriors in scoring (25.3) and rebounds (8.2), along with 4.8 assists in his first season at Golden State.