The Golden State Warriors got a major boost on Monday when it was revealed Kevin Durant would return to the floor for Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Toronto.
It’s been 32 days since Durant went down with a right calf strain in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Rockets, and since then we’ve had little in the way of concrete updates on his status. Finally, he was able to practice and was deemed good enough to go, and so down 3-1 the Warriors appeared to be getting back to full strength.
Durant looked brilliant in the first quarter, scoring 11 points in the opener to help the Warriors take an early lead. However, early in the second quarter he went to the ground after pushing off on a dribble move on the right wing, dropping the ball immediately as he felt it and reached for the back of his right leg.
Ahh no, KD went down https://t.co/thJCbDomrI
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) June 11, 2019
Looked like KD knew right away, re-aggravated the calf pushing off as he tried to create off the bounce #NBACast https://t.co/M48GkJkJZX pic.twitter.com/r8skTLxqZB
— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) June 11, 2019
He would be helped to the locker room by a trainer and Andre Iguodala, with Steph Curry running to the tunnel to check on him, and one would expect that to be it for his 2019 Finals. The official word from the Warriors on Durant is he is done for the night with a “right lower leg injury,” and he will have an MRI on Tuesday.
Kevin Durant has a right lower leg injury. Out the rest of tonight. MRI tomorrow
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 11, 2019
After the game, Warriors president Bob Myers announced Durant had suffered an Achilles injury and that the MRI on Tuesday would determine the extent of it. It’s a brutal blow for Durant as he enters a major free agency summer and now faces the difficult road back from one of the most devastating injuries one can have.
