On February 28th, Kevin Durant suffered a sprained MCL and tibial bone bruise. The doctors said that he’d be out anywhere from four-to-six weeks and now a return to the floor is along Golden State’s line of sight. However, the General Manager Bob Meyers said the team wouldn’t rush him back into the lineup. They’ve enhanced his rehab work while closely monitoring him throughout the recovery process. A championship playoff run is the only thing on the Warriors’ mind.
League sources told Marc Stein and Chris Hayes of ESPN the following.
“It has not been ruled out that he could play again before the end of the regular season.”
After Durant went down, the Warriors looked disheveled for awhile. They’ve picked up their play now, going 7-4 since February 28th, but that is a huge drop off from the bar they set. The Warriors even lost command of the first seed in the Western Conference to the San Antonio Spurs but recently regained it.
Prior to the injury, Durant was averaging 25.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.6 blocks per game on 65TS% while playing the best defense of his career. Now he just traveled with the team as recently as Tuesday and completed his first workout which involved both running and moving while shooting. The Warriors are anticipating an official status update sometime next week.
Durant looked pretty comfortable shooting jumpers before the Mavericks game. didn’t see him doing anything more explosive than this, though. pic.twitter.com/E51raIkkeY
— Tim Cato (@tim_cato) March 21, 2017
