There are countless sayings in the sports world about how a single player isn’t responsible for an entire team’s success, but Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant certainly feels like he is responsible for his team falling from the top of the Eastern Conference to narrowly securing a spot in the play-in tournament.
“To be honest, I feel like our season was derailed by my injury,” Durant said after Monday’s practice, via ESPN. “So I’m not looking at it like we’re just not a good basketball team. It’s like there wasn’t a lot of continuity with me and Kyrie [Irving] out of the lineup, that’s just what it is. When we’re all on the floor together I like what we got.”
The MCL injury Durant sustained in mid-January wasn’t the only bit of adversity the Nets have dealt with this season. In addition to numerous injuries, they were one of the teams hit hardest by the COVID-19 outbreak in December that postponed several games — not to mention being without Kyrie Irving for a good chunk of the season because he was not vaccinated.
It can’t be ignored, however, how badly Brooklyn struggled without Durant in the lineup. In the month-plus that he missed, the Nets went 5-17, including an abysmal 11-game losing streak. Even with Durant dominant in his return and the team having Irving in the mix full time, there’s no denying that long stretch without the towering forward on the floor hurt them in the standings.
Even with the team’s playoff future uncertain with the play-in on the horizon, Durant insists the Nets aren’t looking at the standings to see which team they may play.
“Whoever we play, we play,” Durant said. “I don’t care who we play. I don’t care that we’re in the play-in. Just tip the ball up, [and] see what happens. That’s all you can control. It’s too stressful thinking about we’re trying to dodge a team, lining up, just play the game. We’ll see what happens.”
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