Kevin Durant lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder for the first time on Wednesday night. Durant had a perfectly fine game, scoring 21 points and pulling in five rebounds, but it was not enough to prevent the Thunder from taking down Golden State, 108-91.
Durant played the game on a bum wheel, as he’s been dealing with a sprained left ankle for the last few days. The injury held him out of Golden State’s game against Brooklyn on Sunday, and two days after playing the Thunder, Durant was sidelined due to the injury during the Warriors’ thrashing of the Bulls. And on Saturday night, the ankle will keep Durant from playing against the Pelicans.
Injury Update: Kevin Durant (left ankle sprain) is out for tonight's game vs. New Orleans. Andre Iguodala (sore left knee) is probable.
— Warriors PR (@WarriorsPR) November 25, 2017
The Brooklyn game gave a glimpse into the state of Durant’s ankle, while the matchups against Chicago and New Orleans showed that he re-aggravated the injury against Oklahoma City. In fact, Warriors coach Steve Kerr straight up said that he regrets letting Durant play with the injury, and managed to get a shot at the NBA’s new rest policy in the process.
Via Baxter Holmes of ESPN:
“I thought he was fine. We thought he was fine, but then he got sore afterwards [Wednesday],” Kerr said after Durant sat out the Warriors’ 143-94 win over the Chicago Bulls on Friday.
“I’m sure the league is happy with us because we played him on their ‘marquee’ game with [Russell Westbrook] and all that stuff, but he came out sore the next day, so we shouldn’t have played him.”
The NBA has put an emphasis on making sure that teams cannot rest stars during big games, as evidenced by the controversial rest rules that it put in place during the offseason. Basically, the league doesn’t want stars missing games, especially road games and games that are nationally televised. If they do, Adam Silver reserves the right to punish teams however he sees fit.
Of course, this is something the league put in place for players resting, not sitting out of games for injuries. Kerr seems to be implying that the team would have been punished regardless of whether Durant was hurt or not, which means he is closer to being snarky than being serious.
In the event he meant this earnestly, though, it would behoove the league to offer clarification on how teams are supposed to handle these situations, because having a star play in a game when they aren’t close to 100 percent solely because the team is worried about a fine is not in anyone’s best interest.
(Via ESPN)
