youpdate: Durant is now listed as questionable and Kyrie Irving is out with a finger injury.
It looks like the Sixers won’t have to deal with Kevin Durant tonight, after the Nets star went through the strangest experience this weird NBA season, Friday.
Minutes before the match in the Nets-Raptors game, broadcast on national network, Durant was removed from the starting lineup because he had contacted someone earlier that day who recorded an inconclusive COVID test. While the Nets and NBA awaited the news of this test, Durant was left out.
Then he checked in at the end of the first quarter, the first time in his career that he left the bank.
Early in the third quarter, Durant suffered his fifth foul, hitting Kyle Lowry while the two chased a lost ball. Not wanting his best player to be in trouble 21 minutes from the end of the game, Nets coach Steve Nash challenged the game and won. Durant scored four fouls again, but moments later a Nets official approached him on the bench and said the league had interfered and that he would have to lose the rest of the game.
Durant was not happy, shaking his head and then shooting a some biting tweets.
“Durant was initially prevented from playing while the result was analyzed,” the league said in a statement on Friday night. “In accordance with the league’s health and safety protocols, we do not require a player to be quarantined until a close contact has a confirmed positive test.”
Durant did not travel to Philadelphia for tonight’s game and could end up wasting more time. He had the coronavirus last March and, according to ESPN, still registered antibodies in January, when he lost three games because of contact tracking.
“I don’t understand the whole thing where he couldn’t play, so he went on the court and they took him back,” said teammate James Harden. “There is a lot going on. There is a lot going on. It is kind of oppressive. We are in the middle of a difficult game, and these games will add up, especially if we are talking about sowing in the playoffs. Oppressive. It is frustrating.
“He feels the same way. Especially with him already having it and us taking tests every day. He was negative. So I don’t understand what the problem is. The game should have been postponed, I think. If we’re talking about tracking of contacts, he was close to all of us. So, I don’t understand why he was not allowed to play, then he was allowed to play and was removed from the court. If that were the case, we should have postponed the game. “
Sixers-Nets is scheduled for 8pm. The Sixers are trying to recover after a missed opportunity against a Blazers team on Thursday without Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
Joel Embiid and Seth Curry are questionable to play, while Ben Simmons is likely after having sat stiffly on his calf Thursday.