Kevin Durant has been ruled out of one of the marquee clashes of the Nets’ road trip – their game against the Clippers tonight.
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The Brooklyn Nets find themselves riding high on a 5-game win streak at the moment. This is their response to some terrible losses over early February – they were on a 3-game slide before this.
The turning point was a blowout loss to the Detroit Pistons, who’re the worst team in the league standings today. Kyrie Irving and James Harden addressed the elephant in the room head-on – their leaky defense.
Since that humiliation, they have pulled their socks up defensively, at least effort-wise. They still lack a true big man with shotblocking ability, but they’ve held the Pacers and the Lakers to below 100 points.
3 of these wins have also come in the absence of Kevin Durant, who ran into some hamstring troubles.
Is Kevin Durant playing tonight vs Clippers?
Steve Nash said that the plan was for Durant to continue to do strengthening exercises while being monitored for any inflammation.
“Like I keep saying, I don’t think this is a long-term thing. But there is elements of maybe it being, taking a few more days than we thought or just being cautious.”
“I think right now both are necessary. I don’t think he’s ready, I think he needs more time. But we’re also definitely going to be cautious.”
Despite KD’s absence on the night, the Nets will back themselves to take the battle to the Clippers. Kyrie and Harden are both due for another beastly outing. Though Kawhi and PG-13 will try to clamp them down, both are capable of going off regardless.