[The Athletic] When Durant took the floor to test his ailing knee approximately two hours before tipoff, you didn’t have to access the medical records to know that he was hurting. It was written all over his face… observers said he was not moving well during the session.
When Durant took the floor to test his ailing knee approximately two hours before tipoff, you didn’t have to access the medical records to know that he was hurting. It was written all over his face.
According to several people who watched his routine, his frustration with the brutally-timed situation was impossible to miss. Durant, who played in 78 games during the regular season and has long had a reputation for being willing to play through a fair amount of pain, was clearly coming to grips with the fact that he’d have to sit this playoff opener out. After banging knees with a teammate during practice on Wednesday, then surely hoping the injury wouldn’t linger too long, observers said he was not moving well during the session. He was ruled out soon thereafter.
The question now, of course, is whether the two off-days before Game 2 on Tuesday will be enough time to get him back on the floor. As the regular season showed — and Game 1 confirmed — these Rockets desperately need him.