The Brooklyn Nets may have just eight players available for Saturday night’s game against Orlando, as Kevin Durant will sit out due to ankle soreness.
KD has been nursing a bum ankle of late but has continued to play at an MVP level despite that, averaging 33.1 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game so far in seven games this month. Durant dropped a season-high 51 last Sunday against Detroit and has four double-doubles, including a triple-double on Tuesday, but has done so while averaging 40.4 minutes per game.
That run has become the Nets have been decimated by COVID concerns, with now seven players in COVID protocols (as well as Kyrie Irving, who is absent due to his vaccination status). Brooklyn is 7-1 so far in December, but had just the league-minimum eight available in Tuesday’s win, and bumped it up to nine for Thursday’s win by signing Langston Galloway to a 10-day contract.
Overall, Durant has averaged 29.7 points, 7.9 board and 5.9 dimes this season, shooting 52.3 percent overall and 38.2 percent from deep.
If they do not get any players back out of protocol by tipoff Saturday, the Nets will likely move either Cam Thomas or Kessler Edwards into the starting lineup alongside David Duke, Patty Mills, Blake Griffin, and Nic Claxton – the four who have started the last two games alongside KD – and the other will join Galloway and center Day’Ron Sharpe on the three-man bench.
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