KD’S ON BAYWATCH
DURANT TO MAKE COVID RETURN & FIRST VISIT TO GOLDEN STATE AS NET
Just in time to face the franchise with which he won two NBA championships, Kevin Durant is back.
The Nets superstar rejoined the team for practice Friday, following a six-day quarantine with negative COVID-19 tests after he came into contact with someone who tested positive for the virus on Feb. 5. He will be a full go for Saturday night’s game against the Warriors as the Nets tip off a five-game Western Conference road trip.
“The guy loves basketball and he missed it, we missed him,” coach Steve Nash said. “So it’s a happy family again.”
The week off marked Durant’s second COVID-19 quarantine of the season, though this one was much messier. Durant was a late scratch for the start of last Friday’s game against the Raptors because of an inconclusive COVID-19 test for the person he had come in contact with, then was allowed to play late in the first quarter. But Durant was eventually taken off the floor in the third quarter when a subsequent COVID-19 test for that person came back positive.
“It was just an unfortunate situation,” Durant said Friday. “I was looking forward to that [Feb. 5] game. Being told right before tipoff that I had to wait a second for a test, it just threw off my rhythm a bit because I wanted to go out there and play. But I’m back out there now. It is what it is. I was a little upset during and after the game, but I’m cool now. I’m ready to play.”
Nash said even if he wanted to limit Durant’s minutes Saturday night, “I don’t think he’d allow me to.” The 32-year-old forward is averaging 35.9 minutes per game this season, but said his body is feeling good.
Saturday will be Durant’s first time playing in the Bay Area, his former home, since leaving Golden State to sign with the Nets on a four-year, $164 million deal. His three-year Warriors tenure — which included back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018 — ended after he ruptured his Achilles tendon during Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals.
“I had some great years in Golden State,” Durant said. “Look forward to being back in the Bay Area, but it’s a shame the fans won’t be there.”
If they were, they would see a player who has been as strong as, if not stronger than, most could have expected coming back from a brutal injury. Through his first 18 games, Durant is averaging 29.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 5.2 assists while playing heavy minutes.
“I knew how hard he was working and the preparation he put in,” Nash said. “We’d seen it in the offseason and training camp. We expected this in a sense, but that shouldn’t take away from how astonishing it is that he’s able to come back from that type of injury and be the player that he always was with the explosiveness and dexterity at his size and the incredible accuracy with his shotmaking.”
Durant faced off against his former team in the season opener at Barclays Center, with the Nets beating the Warriors, 125-99. Draymond Green didn’t play in that game, but neither did James Harden, who was still with the Rockets at the time.
Now, as he returns to the place where he teamed up with Green, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to win two rings, Durant was looking forward to getting back on the court with his new ring-chasing Big 3. Saturday will mark just the seventh game Durant, Harden and Kyrie Irving have played together.
“Going back to Golden State, I’m looking forward to playing again and being out there with the team to try to build some chemistry,” Durant said. “That’s my main focus.”