Kevin Durant is back on the court…in a manner of speaking.
The Golden State Warriors superstar hasn’t played since Feb. 28, when he suffered a sprained MCL and bone bruise in his left knee less than two minutes into a game against the Washington Wizards. Though the exact date of his return remains unclear, he is back to doing some on-court work, per the Bay Area News Group’s Anthony Slater:
Hours before the Warriors tipped off on Tuesday night in Dallas, Kevin Durant was out on the court testing his injured left knee a little bit more.
Hours before the Warriors tipped off on Tuesday night in Dallas, Kevin Durant was out on the court testing his injured left knee a little bit more.
This comes as welcomed news and a sight for sore eyes to the Warriors. They don’t necessarily need Durant for the stretch run of the regular season. They have a 2.5-game lead on the NBA’s best record, with only the San Antonio Spurs in striking distance. They can clinch home-court advantage throughout the postseason without Durant taking the floor.
It’s the playoffs that are a problem.
We’ve seen how the Warriors’ offense bogs down when Stephen Curry isn’t Stephen Curry—when defenses find a way to neutralize his superhuman shooting, or when he’s just going through slumps. That becomes a huge problem during the postseason, when the pace of play slows down and teams are operating more in the half-court.
Durant is supposed to entirely nullify those potential ill-effects. If Curry isn’t able to create or hit on his clean looks, Durant is there, a fellow MVP, to make the Warriors absolutely unguardable.
But if he’s not right by the postseason, either through health or his play, the team’s job becomes exponentially harder, albeit not impossible. That he appears to be progressing toward a semi-imminent return has to come as a relief.
