KD TAKES CHARGE
In game pushed back one day, Durant delivers right on schedule
NETS 127 T’WOLVES 97
For the Nets, the rest of this regular season is about Kevin Durant, and how a team with championship aspirations jells entering its push for the East’s top seed.
Durant had played in only two games since returning from a hamstring injury that cost him 23 games. With the playoffs drawing near, would the superstar forward have enough time to get his wind, get his comfort level and get the Nets back on championship track?
The Timberwolves were hardly a challenge. In a game rescheduled from Monday in wake of the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, they didn’t have Karl-Anthony
Towns (personal reasons), and even with him, Minnesota has the worst record in all of basketball. The Nets were short James Harden (hamstring), Kyrie Irving (personal reasons) and LaMarcus Aldridge (illness), but made quick work of the Wolves, jumping out to an early double-digit lead that ballooned to 41 in a 127-97 victory on the road.
The win was expected, especially after a particularly poor performance against the defending champions. Durant’s minutes distribution, however, is telling for a Nets team trying to safely but consistently get its star forward back up to speed.
Durant came out aggressive and scored eight points in the first five minutes, making his first three shots. He played 27 minutes and scored 31 points, shooting four-ofsix from downtown. After turning the ball over eight times against the Lakers, he turned it over four times against the Wolves — still a high number against a poor team, but an improvement nonetheless.
“I felt good out there. I felt like my wind and legs were getting underneath me in each and every minute I’m playing,” Durant said. “That’s really what I wanted out of this time, and we’ll see how I feel in the morning, and I’ll talk to coach and the training staff to see where we
go from there.”
The Nets led by 30 in the third quarter and coach Steve Nash could have opted to rest Durant the remainder of the period. Instead, he went back to Durant in the fourth to maximize the opportunity of his time with only 18 games left before the playoffs.
“It’s a tricky balance because he needs to play a certain amount of minutes for his benefit. At the same time, when the game is that out of hand, you’re caught like, ‘Do we want to risk him being out there at this point in the game?’” Nash said. “In an ideal world he’d play close to 30 minutes, but at the same time, he’s out there at the end of the game in meaningless minutes you want to be careful as well. We’re trying to find that balance. At least he had a good game and got some minutes in his legs.”
Durant had help. Joe Harris had the hot hand early and finished with 23 points on five-of-eight shooting from downtown. Landry Shamet brought another five triples off the bench, and DeAndre Jordan appeared in his first game since the Nets acquired Aldridge on the buyout market. Jordan finished with 13 points, did not miss a shot, and exhibited the athleticism Aldridge lacks.
The Nets got a blast from the past: D’Angelo Russell came off the bench and scored 15 points in 20 minutes. Russell recently returned from knee surgery and is also on a minutes restriction.
The Nets, though, couldn’t shake the injury bug: Reserve point guard Chris Chiozza left the game at halftime and did not return after an injury to his right hand.
Maybe Nash should lace them up one more time.
Tonight, the Nets have a game against the 76ers that will decide the No. 1 seed (for now), and it remains unclear whether Durant will play in the second game of a back-to-back.
The Nets’ big three has played in only six full games as a trio.
“I want to play just to get back in the swing of things more so than like pinpoint that matchup. You know what I’m saying?” Durant said. “I think for us, we want to get everybody healthy and acclimated to what we’re doing out there, and I think that’s just as important as circling the calendar for Philly. They’re a great team, well-coached, and I’m sure a team we’re going to run into here soon, but for us at this point, we want to continue to fine tune what we do to get better at the things that make us who we are and we’ll see what happens down the line.”