Earlier this week, the Brooklyn Nets announced that James Harden would be out for at least ten days due to a thigh muscle injury. The good news was that their other MVP, Kevin Durant, was on his way back from a thigh muscle problem. And on Wednesday, in the Nets’ 139-111 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, Durant returned to the series for the first time since Feb. 13.
However, it took a while before he got on the field as the Nets pulled him out of the starting lineup a few minutes before the tip. When he was not yet in the game by the middle of the second quarter, there were many questions about what was going on, but eventually he signed up and went straight to where he left off.
He played 19 minutes off the bench – it was only the second time in his career that he has yet to start a game – Durant finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists on a perfect 5-out-5 field. He also had six turnovers, but that’s not great, since he’s not played in a game for almost two months.
After the game, Nets head coach Steve Nash explained that they had brought Durant off the bench so they could play him off the piece when the game was close.
“We just thought it was an opportunity to give him a chance to play in the second half,” Nash said. “Or if the game was tight enough to play the piece off. That way we could manage his minutes and his minute constraints so he could have an impact on the game if it was close. Not much more to it, really. “
This was no problem in the end, as Durant and Co made the Pelicans easy. It turns out that when the team with the second-best offense in the league (Brooklyn) plays the team with the third worst defense in the league (New Orleans), it usually does not work out well for the latter.
Durant did virtually what he wanted, and had very little resistance from the Pelicans. To be honest, they are short, but that does not really explain plays like this, where Durant just dropped the entire length of the floor in a straight line and made a layout.
That being said, it was not the most exciting match, but it was great to see Durant healthy and back in action. The next step is for the Nets to get all three of their stars healthy so that we can finally see them in action for a long time.