Brooklyn networks continue to be undermined. They announced that Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge will be out on Wednesday night against the 76ers, plus star James Harden will remain out of action.
The good news for Brooklyn is that Kyrie Irving is available to play after losing Tuesday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves while attending a family affair.
The Nets are also without guard Chris Chiozza. Chiozza, who started instead of Irving on Tuesday, underwent surgery Wednesday to repair a fractured right finger. He suffered the injury against the Timberwolves.
Harden remains on the sidelines with a right hamstring strain, and Tyler Johnson continues to work with pain in his right knee.
Aldridge is staying with a disease other than COVID-19 and Griffin is on a day of injury management with an ongoing knee problem.
On Tuesday, Durant played 27 minutes against the Timberwolves, even as the Nets ’lead increased to 40 points. Nets coach Steve Nash said the Nets want to keep increasing their playing time to 30 minutes, but it’s a “complicated balance.”
“You have to play a certain amount of minutes for your benefit,” Nash said Tuesday. “At the same time, when the game is out of control, you get caught, like now, do we want to risk being out of here at this point in the game? But at the same time, it’s out of play at the end of the game. in meaningless minutes; you also want to be prudent. We are trying to find that balance. “
Durant said Tuesday that increasing his workload felt “good” and that he would determine his condition by Wednesday after seeing how his body was recovering and checking with the team’s training staff.
“I felt like the wind and my legs were under me in every minute I’m playing, and that’s the maximum: that’s what I wanted out of that moment,” Durant said.
Durant said the Nets were eager to face the 76ers, who play with the Nets for No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference, but are more focused on getting the whole team off the ground. After all, the big three of the Nets have played just seven games together.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the fewest goals played together by the top three scorers of any NBA champion during the regular season are 10, when they beat Shaquille O’Neal-Kobe Bryant-Derek Fisher Lakers in 2001. After Wednesday, the Nets will have only 17 games left for the regular season.
“I think for us we want everyone to be healthy and acclimatized to what we’re doing out there, and I think that’s as important as flipping through the Philly calendar,” Durant said. “They’re a fantastic team, well-trained and I’m sure a team that we’ll be here soon, but for us right now we want to keep fine-tuning what we do to improve on the things that make us who we are and see what happens in the upside down “.