Nets coach Steve Nash addressed losing Kevin Durant to a knee injury for significant time on Monday but he wasn’t looking for pity.
“We just have to do the best we can,” Nash said on Monday, per ESPN. “We can’t cry about it. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We got to keep building, see what we can learn, how we can grow during this period of Kevin being out and Joe [Harris] being out and how we can continue to move this thing forward so when they do come back, we’re in a better place—and he can rejoin us in a place where we can feel better about where we are in that part of the season.”
Harris is still recovering from left ankle surgery all the while Durant is expected to be out out at least a month with a sprained MCL he suffered on Saturday night against the Pelicans, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Durant has been putting up MVP-level numbers up until this point. He’s averaging 29.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists while shooting 52% from the field.
Brooklyn currently sits at the No. 3 spot in the Eastern Conference at 27–16. The team recently got Kyrie Irving back but just for away games due to his vaccination status.
“He's such a well-rounded player, does so many things at a high level, plus he gives us small-team size on the perimeter—there’s so many ways that his absence will be felt,“ Nash said on Durant. “Having said that, it’s a great opportunity for guys, and it's an opportunity for our team to grow. We can’t rely on him in ways that we could, and we have to find ways and solutions to be competitive without him.”
