The Brooklyn Nets are still understaffed. They announced that Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge will face the 76ers on Wednesday night, alongside star James Harden who remains sidelined.
The good news for Brooklyn is that Kyrie Irving is available to play after missing Tuesday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves while attending a family affair.
The Nets are also without guard Chris Chiozza. Chiozza, who started in Irving’s place on Tuesday, underwent hand surgery on Wednesday to mend a broken right finger. He sustained the injury against the Timberwolves.
Harden is still sidelined with a right hamstring load, and Tyler Johnson is still working through right knee pain.
Aldridge is being held with a non-COVID-19 illness and Griffin is on an injury day with a persistent knee problem.
On Tuesday, Durant played 27 minutes against the Timberwolves, even as the Nets’ lead exploded to 40 points. Nets coach Steve Nash said the Nets want to extend his playing time to 30 minutes, but it is a “tricky balance”.
“He has to play a certain number of minutes for his advantage,” Nash said on Tuesday. “ At the same time, when the game gets so out of hand, you get caught, like, do we want to risk him being present at this point in the game? In an ideal world, he would play for almost 30 minutes. , but at the same time he’s at the end of the game in pointless minutes – you want to be careful too. We try to find that balance. “
Durant said Tuesday that increasing his workload felt “good” and that he would determine his status for Wednesday after watching his body recover and contacting the team’s training staff.
“I felt like my wind and legs got under me every minute I play, and that’s the most – that’s really what I wanted to get out of this time,” said Durant.
Durant said the Nets were looking forward to taking on the 76ers, who are jockeying with the Nets for the number 1 spot in the Eastern Conference, but they are more focused on getting the whole team together on the floor. After all, the big three of the Nets have only played seven games together.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the fewest games an NBA champion’s top three scorers have played together during the regular season are 10, when the Shaquille O’Neal-Kobe Bryant-Derek Fisher Lakers won in 2001. only 17 games left in the regular season.
“I think we want to make everyone healthy and get used to what we’re doing out there, and I think that’s just as important as cycling the calendar for Philly,” Durant said. “They are a great team, well coached and I am sure we will see a team here soon, but for us at this point we want to continue to refine what we do to get better at the things that make us who we are, and we’ll see what happens later. “