NEW YORK — Pump the brakes on the Nets rushing Kevin Durant back to the floor.
Durant hasn’t played since spraining the MCL in his left knee in a Jan. 15 matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans and is expected to return to the lineup some time after the Feb. 20 NBA All-Star break.
That could mean Feb. 24 at home against the Celtics or Feb. 26 in Milwaukee against the Bucks, but Nets coach Steve Nash said he wants to err on the side of caution.
“I’m not like, ‘He’s going to play right when the break ends,’ ” Nash said on Wednesday. “There’s obviously a small chance, but we want to be really careful because a setback would be tough with 20 or so games left. We don’t want to jeopardize there and have a setback where he misses another six to 12 games.
“So I think we’ll be cautious coming out of the break. ... I think it’s more likely that we don’t get our hopes up that he’s going to play the first game out of the break.”
Durant’s murky injury history gives the Nets plenty of reason to be cautious moving forward.
He ruptured his right Achilles tendon during the 2019 NBA Finals, sat out the entire next season, returned for 2020-21, then battled thigh and hamstring injuries that kept him off the floor at different points during the year.
Durant had been much more durable and played in almost all of the Nets’ games prior to his injury this season. The injury itself was a freak incident — a Pelicans player pushed Bruce Brown to the ground when driving to the rim, and Brown’s momentum sent him directly into Durant’s knee, which bent inward and sent him to the locker room for medical attention.
The Nets also have a recent history of players having injury setbacks: Last season, James Harden had a setback with his hamstring injury and was forced to sit out longer than expected. This season, it’s Joe Harris, who sprained his ankle in November, had surgery, then had a setback in his rehab and could now be in line for a second surgery on his ankle.
The Nets can’t afford for Durant to miss more time than he has to. The team already lost 13 of their last 16 games with him and rode an 11-game losing streak before beating the Sacramento Kings on Monday.
There are 24 games left on the schedule after Wednesday’s matchup against the Knicks. The Nets will need to win most of them to finish better than the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed and avoid the play-in tournament.
To do so, the Nets need to finish sixth or better, which becomes much more doable when Durant is on the floor. He is the best player in basketball when he’s healthy, averaging a league-leading 29.3 points per game to go with about 7.5 rebounds, 6 assists, a steal and a block.
Durant is a self-proclaimed “hooper” and wants to play as many games as possible, but the Nets are going to take the safe route. Their championship dreams live and die with a healthy Durant. The Nets are going to take every precaution to ensure he stays healthy for the long haul — even if it means losing a few games right out of the All-Star break.
