In front of the Nets’ season opener against the Warriors, Golden State mentor Steve Kerr plunked down to observe some film of his previous player Kevin Durant. He pulled up Brooklyn’s preseason game against Boston and took in Durant’s first serious play since tearing his Achilles in June of 2019.
“I didn’t know what to expect given that it’s been really a year and a half since his last game,” Kerr said. “But I could not tell one difference between seeing him 18 months ago and seeing him the other night.”
Durant has avoided making any broad decrees, yet Kerr got an unparalleled view to Durant’s strength on Tuesday as he set up 22 focuses in a 125-99 triumph against his previous group.
Also, this time, it wasn’t a preseason warm-up.
“I think we had a solid first start,” Durant said after the game. “So we want to build on it. I was looking forward to coming out here and getting a ‘W,’ and I was glad we were able to come out and finish the job.”
Durant depleted midrange jumpers over Andrew Wiggins, raised for one-gave pummels, strung the ball through safeguards to discover DeAndre Jordan at the edge and sprinkled in 3s. While he wasn’t on a minutes limitation, mentor Steve Nash said before the game that he would be “thoughtful” with Durant’s playing time. He wound up out on the floor for 25 minutes.
Alongside his scoring, Durant had 5 bounce back, 3 helps and 3 takes. He shot 7-of-16 from the field and didn’t miss from the free toss line in seven endeavors. Durant said that he didn’t feel he expected to demonstrate that he could coordinate his degree of play in 2019 to come to a meaningful conclusion.
“I don’t think I have to show anybody anything,” Durant said. “I’m just going to come out there and just hoop … So, I don’t feel like I’ve got to prove myself, but I want to go out there and be able to do whatever Coach needs me to out on the floor.”
Heroes star Stephen Curry had the option to summarize confronting his previous colleague in single word: “Awful.”
“With KD out there — the way that he looked, he looked all the way healthy, confident in his body, so it was good to see obviously from a health standpoint,” Curry said. “That means a lot to come off an injury like that.”
With Durant and Kyrie Irving driving the way, Brooklyn got steam rapidly. The Nets leaped out to a 18-8 lead in the primary quarter after Durant took off toward the bushel and conveyed a definitive dunk. He piled up a brisk 10 focuses in the principal quarter, and Irving – who hasn’t played serious b-ball since February in the wake of harming his shoulder – drove the group with a mid 17 focuses.
Irving – who nailed almost unthinkably profound 3-pointers and exhibited his showy, signature ballhandling – got done with a group high 26 focuses.
Irving said after the game that he was energized by the game, however has bigger objectives for the season. He said on occasion in his vocation, he was up to speed “just trying to play ‘hero’ basketball.”
This season, he stated, he is attempting to zero in additional on aggregate group objectives.
“As a young player,” Irving said, “you think that scoring a bunch of points, doing a bunch of things, getting a bunch of accolades are great. I definitely was going after those things, and now, I really don’t care for any of those individual accolades or goals. It doesn’t bother me. I know I’m validated culturally. That’s all that matters. I don’t need All-NBA; I don’t need the MVP. I just want the championship with a great team that I can look back in history and say, ‘We did it our way, and we had fun doing it.'”
Neither Durant nor Irving played in the final quarter.
As Durant advanced toward the seat toward the finish of the second from last quarter, his night complete, he high-fived each partner and mentor, smiling as he advanced from the primary line of collapsing seats to his seat in the subsequent line. He gazed up at the scoreboard, as though taking in the numbers behind his return that were shown, and pulled his dim warm-up shirt over his head.
With Irving close by, Durant looked as their colleagues added to Brooklyn’s lead. At a certain point in the final quarter, the Nets were up by more than 30. Durant applauded and given out more high-fives, the following stage of his rebound total.