Kevin Durant was asked to shoulder the load for the Nets in last year’s playoffs, when Kyrie Irving went down with an injury and James Harden tried his best to pull his weight on a bum hamstring.
Durant proved up to the challenge, playing hero ball in game five before falling in game seven to the Bucks in the second round.
Now, just two games into the season, Durant is going to be asked to once again take on more responsibility to help Brooklyn reach its championship goals.
With Irving still away from the team due to his COVID-19 vaccination status, the team’s primary ball handler and one of its top scorers is off the board, meaning more of the focus will be placed on Durant. He answered the call on Friday night, logging a 29-point triple-double and leading the Nets to a comeback win over the 76ers, one of Brooklyn’s expected top competitors in the Eastern Conference this season.
“Contending teams like Philly, they’re so versatile defensively, so I went into the game prepared to do anything,” Durant said. “It might not be my night scoring, it might not be my night assisting, so I just gotta be ready to do anything on offense…my role tonight I thought was more getting into the paint, making plays, and rebounding,”
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For Durant, that mindset will likely have to remain throughout the season, so long as Irving remains unvaccinated. He won’t be alone, as the rest of the group will have to get used to life without Irving and find their own way, like they did in the second half on Friday night.
“We’re pros, and we have to adapt,” Durant said. “We weren’t planning on having to do this, but it’s good for us to make adjustments, and it’s good for guys who weren’t expecting to play bigger roles to step in those roles and see who we are. It’s the situation we’re in, and I think a lot of guys have taken advantage of it.”
The bulk of the responsibility will of course fall on Harden and Durant, who together can combine for enough scoring to keep the Nets in contention in Irving’s absence. But it might look differently on a nightly basis, and both will have to do whatever is necessary to grind out wins against tougher teams like the 76ers and Bucks. Through the first two games of the season, each against those two fellow Eastern Conference contenders, there have been mixed results as Brooklyn’s dynamic duo gets used to life no longer as a big three.
“For James and myself, I feel like each game might be different,” Durant said. “We might have to do different things that we thought coming into the season. But it’s all good, it’s all going to help us get better.”
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