WINTER JUST GOT COLDER
Nets could be without Durant at least 4-6 weeks after star suffers knee sprain
An MRI completed Sunday morning confirmed Kevin Durant sprained the MCL in his left knee Saturday night against the Pelicans. There is no timeline for his return.
“Durant is expected to return to full strength following a period of rehabilitation,” the team said.
An ESPN report surfaced later in the day suggesting the Nets expect his rehab to last four-to-six weeks. If that remains the case, the Nets will be without
Durant at the very least until the end of February.
Durant played 12, minutes, 22 seconds against the Pelicans before his second-quarter injury. At the time, he was standing in the paint defending a fast break when Pelicans forward Herbert Jones pushed off Bruce Brown on a drive to the rim. Brown lost his balance and fell directly into Durant’s left knee, which appeared to hyperextend.
Durant limped off the court and into the locker room.
Durant contributed 12 points, three rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block before the the injury.
“It’ll be tough to lose him,” Steve Nash said of Durant Saturday. “No one wants to see that and we’ll obviously hope for the best outcome, but regardless of the outcome, we have to continue to work, build and grow and get better and compete.”
A Grade I MCL injury means a stretching of the MCL, whereas Grades II and III mean a tear (partial or full), according to the Hospital for Special Surgery.
Warriors’ point guard Steph Curry, for example, missed two weeks with a Grade I MCL sprain back in 2018. Lakers’ center Anthony Davis has been out since Dec. 17 with an MCL sprain. Davis’ return could come during the Lakers’ road trip the end of this month, per ESPN.
Durant has been a constant for the team this season, particularly when compared with James Harden and Kyrie Irving. The unvaccinated Irving only recently was allowed to return as a parttime player and Harden has returned to
form after a slow start.
Durant, meanwhile has played in 36 games this season in which he’s averaged 36.5 minutes — the most since his time with the Thunder — and could be counted on to contribute an average 29.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists.
Durant was in the COVID-19 health and safety protocols for three of the six games he did not play this season — two absences were rest days and the final absence was for a shoulder sprain earlier in the season, which Nash said had “been bugging him a little bit.”
This latest injury, while a concern, is certainly not as severe as the ruptured right Achilles tendon he experienced during the 2018-19 playoffs, which cost him his first season in Brooklyn.
Last season, aside from missing time due to load management, he was also sidelined 23 games with a left hamstring strain and another three games with a left thigh bruise. He also missed time in the 2020-21 season after going into the health and safety protocols twice.