{"id":14280,"date":"2022-02-27T13:14:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-27T13:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/?p=14280"},"modified":"2022-02-27T13:14:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-27T13:14:27","slug":"kevin-durant-could-make-nets-return-by-end-of-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/kevin-durant-could-make-nets-return-by-end-of-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant could make Nets return by end of week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The Nets played their 19th straight game without Kevin Durant on Saturday night, but they may not have to wait much longer for their star to return.<\/p>\n<p>Durant went through a second high-intensity workout Saturday morning in Milwaukee and if he comes out of that healthy, could only need one more before he is cleared to return from his sprained left MCL \u2014 though coach Steve Nash said Durant is unlikely to return during a back-to-back Monday and Tuesday against the Raptors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery day closer,\u201d Nash said before the Nets\u2019 126-123 win over the Bucks. \u201cWe\u2019ll see. I expect in the next week he\u2019ll be back for sure. But it could be quick, it could be the whole week barring setbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nash described the high-intensity workouts as playing either half-court or full-court games with the Nets\u2019 \u201cstay-ready\u201d group. It remains to be seen when Durant will get the chance to go through a third high-intensity workout \u2014 possibly Monday morning in Brooklyn \u2014 but the Nets have a home-and-home Monday and Tuesday against the Raptors before hosting the Heat on Thursday.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-default\"><figcaption>Kevin Durant<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">NBAE via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Before sustaining the knee injury, Durant was putting together an MVP-caliber season, averaging 29.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists through 36 games. His return would go a long way toward reviving the Nets, as they try to avoid the play-in tournament, with 21 games left in the regular season following the clash with the Bucks on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think with Kevin, he\u2019s been a great healer throughout his career,\u201d Nash said. \u201cThe No. 1 thing is to get him back healthy, feeling secure in his health and his body so he can move and be free when he\u2019s back. Obviously he adds a ton to our team on both ends of the floor. He leads the league in scoring, one of the greatest scorers of all time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we also know he helps us defensively and gives us more size and length. He\u2019s a big miss for us and whenever he gets back he\u2019ll definitely impact our team on both ends of the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>While Ben Simmons continues his conditioning for a return to play, he is dealing with some back soreness, Nash confirmed. The coach said the flare-up was not an injury, but instead \u201cnormal soreness\u201d for someone who was ramping back up after not having played a game since June.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not a long-term thing,\u201d Nash said. \u201cThat\u2019s just part of his process in returning to play. As you ramp up, you\u2019re a little bit susceptible to certain things, as you would be with muscle soreness or tightness. He\u2019s having a little tightness with his back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was not clear whether the issue would further delay Simmons\u2019 Nets debut.<\/p>\n<p>Simmons traveled to Milwaukee with the Nets, but is not yet doing high-intensity workouts. Nash described Simmons as doing individual work and combining physio, strength and conditioning and skill work to get his body and game back up to playing speed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s not quite in [Durant\u2019s] position, so as far as Kevin\u2019s really close, [Simmons] still has some time ahead of him,\u201d Nash said.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n<p>Nash said there was still no decision yet whether Joe Harris (ankle) would need another surgery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s going to keep working at it and trying to see if it continues to improve,\u201d Nash said.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n<p>Newly signed point guard Goran Dragic, playing for the first time since Nov. 13, made his Nets debut and chipped in six points in 14 minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nets played their 19th straight game without Kevin Durant on Saturday night, but they may not have to wait much longer for their star to return. Durant went through a second high-intensity workout Saturday morning in Milwaukee and if he comes out of that healthy, could only need one more before he is cleared<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[822,659,643,198],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14282,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14280\/revisions\/14282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}