As if the news for the Oklahoma City Thunder couldn’t get worse. The Thunder lost their big man Serge Ibaka until the end of the season and possibly will be without him through the start of the playoffs.
Now the reigning MVP, Kevin Durant, just suffered a setback and was held out of practice today, not exactly what the Thunder need to hear.
Following from ESPN’s Royce Young on the Daily Thunder TrueHoop blog.
“Experiencing a little bit of soreness,” Brooks said. “That’s expected. We have some peaks and valleys, and we always have a cautious approach, so today he didn’t do anything.” …
Asked if he’d classify Durant’s soreness as a setback, or how he’d classify it, Brooks worked around the edges of answering that.
“Just he experienced some soreness,” Brooks said. “I think when you go through rehab, we all know through the rehab process you’re going to have some peaks and valleys, and you just have to adjust accordingly. That’s why he was off today, and he’s definitely not playing tomorrow. That’s all part of the process with his rehab.” …
Again, Durant was given a timetable of “a week or two” eight days ago, which suggested he would be back soon. Him not practicing today is certainly a step in the wrong direction of returning, and it certainly appears he’s not on track.
At this point, if Durant doesn’t make it back soon, the Thunder are all but done. Westbrook can’t do it alone, not anymore at least. His play over the last 2 games shows that Westbrook is actually human and he can’t just put down triple-doubles every night. With the Thunder just exchanging wins and losses as of late, I don’t think OKC can survive the Brow and his New Orleans Pelicans climbing up the ladder to take their seat in the eights seed in the Western conference.
Plus, who would you rather see take on the Golden State Warriors, a beaten, bruised Oklahoma City Thunder team possibly not even close to full health or a New Orleans Pelicans team, led by Anthony Davis who is beyond hungry to get into the playoffs?
I think New Orleans would be a better look.
