Kevin Durant expected out until Friday
Tom Moore: #Nets coach Steve Nash on Kevin Durant: ‘We found out he can re-join the team Friday. I assume that’s the 7-day contact tracing protocol.’ 21 hours ago – via Twitter TomMoorePhilly
After a confounding night surrounding the status of Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant at the Barclays Center — which included him getting pulled out of the lineup in the pregame and third quarter for contact-tracing protocols — Durant won’t travel to Philadelphia for Saturday’s game and could be lost for multiple games for the second time in a month, sources tell ESPN. Durant had come into contact with an associate on Friday who tested positive for the coronavirus Friday night, just hours after returning an inconclusive test shortly before the Nets’ 123-117 loss to the Toronto Raptors. – via Malika Andrews, Adrian Wojnarowski @ ESPN
Durant contracted the coronavirus in March and still had those antibodies in early January when he was lost for four games because of contact tracing. Four weeks later, Durant could be lost for a similar six-day stretch, sources said. After Friday’s game, Nash said that he struggled, at times, to compartmentalize Durant’s absence during the game. – via Malika Andrews, Adrian Wojnarowski @ ESPN
Shams Charania: Statement from NBA on Kevin Durant situation: Kevin Durant has tested negative three times in the last 24 hours, including two negative PCR tests today. However, someone he interacted with this afternoon subsequently had an inconclusive test result return shortly before the game. Durant was initially held out of the game while that result was being reviewed. Under 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. During the game, a positive result was returned for the person Durant interacted with this afternoon. Once that test was confirmed positive, out of an abundance of caution, Durant was removed from the game, and contact tracing is underway to determine if he was in fact a close contact of the positive individual. – via Twitter ShamsCharania
Brian Floyd: Can everyone stop saying things like “out of an abundance of caution”?We’re just saying words that don’t match actions for PR over and over at this point. Kevin Durant: Yo @nba, your fans aren’t dumb!!!! You can’t fool em with your Wack ass PR tactics.. #FREE7 – via Twitter KDTrey5
“I was frustrated, especially [since] we follow the protocols, we get tested every single day, so I don’t understand the whole thing where he couldn’t play and then he came on a court, and then they took him back. There’s just a lot going on. There’s too much going on. It’s kind of overwhelming,” said James Harden, who broached the question of whether the game should’ve been called altogether. – via Brian Lewis @ New York Post
