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In the midst of the Brooklyn Nets’ 102-101 win against the Miami Heat Sunday night, the team lost superstar Kevin Durant, who left the game in the third quarter with what the team announced as a right knee injury. After the game, Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said that Durant will have an MRI on the knee Monday to determine the severity of the injury.
The injury occurred at the end of the third quarter when Heat guard Jimmy Butler landed on Durant’s knee after falling from an attempted layup. Durant immediately began grabbing at his right knee and stayed on the ground for a moment before ultimately limping back to the locker room. Shortly after, Brooklyn ruled him out for the rest of the game. Here is the play where the injury occurred:
It was around this time last season that K.D. went down with a sprained MCL in his left knee, which sidelined him for five weeks. During that span, the Nets went just 5-16, including an 11-game losing streak, showing just how important Durant is to this team. However, after losing Durant Sunday night, the Nets managed to pull out a win after being down nine points late in the fourth quarter, picking up their 18th win in the last 20 games.
We’ll have to wait until after the MRI to see if Durant will miss any time with this injury, but if he does, it’ll force Kyrie Irving and others to make up for the 30 points that K.D. provides on a nightly basis. There isn’t a single person on the Nets that could fill Durant’s role adequately, but Brooklyn has the depth to at least partially make up for his loss in production should the former league MVP be required to miss time.
