Nets’ superstar Kevin Durant made a comment about his playing time after the win over the Mavericks, gets rested against the Rockets
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The Brooklyn Nets have a rotation problem, and it’s secret to none. Not having Kyrie Irving in the squad, who can easily give them 20-25 points a game means there’s more every day that James Harden and Kevin Durant’s got to do.
But the latter is taking his unvaccinated teammate’s responsibility much more than the MVP guard of Brooklyn. Durant was averaging over 40 minutes in 5 games before their clash against a red-hot Houston Rockets.
Kevin Durant is averaging 40.4 minutes in his last 5 games. pic.twitter.com/IolfMRpXPH
— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 8, 2021
Nets’ head coach Steve Nash felt that he does not have any option other than to use Durant as much as he can, to win the games.
“I don’t know what options we have other than to play him less and lose more.”: Steve Nash said on Kevin Durant playing 44 minutes against the Phoenix Suns. But he finally decided to sit the Slim Reaper against the Rockets.
Kevin Durant wanted to play 48 minutes against the Rockets
That wasn’t what Kevin Durant was expecting after closing out a tight game on Tuesday. KD addressed the media by saying he’d play 48 minutes the next day, just after playing over forty against Dallas Mavericks.
“I know people may be concerned about my minutes and I got injured before and all this extra s–t….But I might play 48 tomorrow, just cause, give you something to talk about.”
-Kevin Durant on how many minutes he’s been playing lately. pic.twitter.com/rpMV30LZCP
— DaveEarly (@DavidEarly) December 8, 2021
He could have been speaking sarcastically as coach Nash decided to sit both his mid-range automatic operators KD and LaMarcus Aldridge. Both of them were insisting on playing the back-to-back against the Rockets.
Steve Nash on the decision to rest Kevin Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge tonight:
“They both wanted to play but it was an opportunity to try to get a little bit of a rest bite during this tough stretch” pic.twitter.com/irrbksZvaz
— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) December 9, 2021
The Rockets took their opportunity and stole this game to extend their run to seven. They won the game 114-104. Their former MVP, James Harden, did help them a bit by going 3/12 from beyond the arc for the Nets.
It’s time for “The Beard” to come up big and be his 3-time scoring champ version. Otherwise, the risk of burning out Kevin Durant before the Playoffs would be the only option left for coach Nash.