Play.
Kevin Durant dropped 34 in a win.
In Brooklyn's 114-105 win over the 76ers, Kevin Durant had 34 points, 11 rebound and eight assists. The song is called "1:56."
7:30 PM
Steve Nash, the Brooklyn Nets coach, said he's concerned about the amount of minutes Kevin Durant is playing this season, and that the team is going to have to monitor him closely as it navigates the next several games with a short-handed roster.
Nash said before the Brooklyn Nets hosted the Philadelphia 76ers that it's a really important topic. I don't know if we can continue to rely on him. It doesn't feel right.
I know he's enjoying it. I know he's enjoying playing and trying to bring his teammates along with him, and he's accepted and crushed the responsibility that he's been given. It's been amazing. It's not safe to lean on him like that. We'll have to figure out ways to give him breaks because there's a lot of consideration.
The fourth-most minutes per game in the NBA this season is by the Raptors' Fred VanVleet, who is followed by OG Anunoby and the Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James. Since the 2013-14 season, when he scored 32 points per game and claimed the Most Valuable Player award, he has averaged 38.6 minutes per night.
He played a season-high 48 minutes in Tuesday night's overtime victory against the Raptors, his fifth time in 26 games this season that he's played over 40 minutes. He was listed as questionable to play in Tuesday's game due to ankle inflammation.
When asked about his minutes load after Tuesday's win, he said "I just try to do what's required." I want to be out there. I want to play. I want to win. It starts there.
I'm going to do whatever it takes to accomplish those three things.
The challenge for the Nets is more than just winning today, it's also winning in a few months when Brooklyn hopes to make a deep playoff run.
It will require getting KD through the season healthy after missing the entire season due to an injury, and playing just 35 regular-season games last season because of recurring injuries.
The man has missed two games so far this season. With Brooklyn down seven players due to the NBA's health and safety protocols for a minimum of another week, plus remaining without Joe Harris, who is recovering from ankle surgery, and Kyrie Irving, who has not played yet this season, it's hard to see how the Nets will be
Nash admitted that having just enough players available to keep playing is a double-edged sword.
The NBA's minimum requirement of having eight healthy players available to play in a game is positive, according to Nash. We're barely above the threshold. What does that do to our players?
Is it better to be over the threshold and not be playing until you have a healthy roster or is it better to have enough to play but not have enough players to play? It is difficult to navigate.
Doc Rivers said that no one else had tested positive yet, and that Georges Niang was the one who had tested positive. Rivers said the team held a call Wednesday to tighten up their own protocols after going through their own outbreak earlier in the season.
"We got all the sports leagues putting their brains together at the same time, probably," Rivers said, adding he's received calls from other coaches in recent days asking him for advice on how to navigate losing players to COVID-19." I know we had an individual call and talked with our own people. We're going to make some changes of our own. We want to be the team with the least. We lead with games off. The one stretch was brutal for us and now other teams are going through it. It's not fun.
