Kevin Durant has been battling an ankle injury for a while now, to the point where there seemed to be real doubt as to whether the reigning NBA Finals MVP would be ready to go when the Golden State Warriors faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier this week.
After playing 33 minutes in a lopsided loss to Russell Westbrook and company, Durant and the Warriors had the day off on Thanksgiving but that apparently wasn’t enough for full healing in advance of Friday’s game against Chicago.
Kevin Durant (ankle) and Draymond Green (rest) will sit tonight vs Bulls, per #Warriors.
— Monte Poole (@MontePooleNBCS) November 24, 2017
There was plenty of attention on Durant’s comments after the game in Oklahoma City but, now, the focus shifts back to his health and availability. In some ways, it is not surprising to see this kind of absence against the lowly Bulls and, before that, Durant sat out a road game against the Brooklyn Nets.
That could constitute a trend in the All-NBA forward sitting out against teams that Golden State should beat without him while suiting up against high-level teams but that is likely one that the Warriors would push back against.
Durant’s injury doesn’t appear to be one that is overly serious but, in the same breath, Golden State has (very) little incentive to push him on to the floor at anything less than 100 percent. We could learn more about his status when the Warriors take on the Pelicans in the second game of a back-to-back on Saturday but, at the very least, Durant won’t be in uniform against Chicago.
