Kevin Durant, Nets turning their focus to basketball
Nets forward Kevin Durant looks at the clock during the first half of an NBA game against the Hornets on Saturday in Charlotte, N.C. Credit: AP/Rusty Jones
DALLAS — Two road victories on consecutive nights — one a blowout and one requiring a furious fourth-quarter comeback — had Kevin Durant feeling as if maybe the Nets can focus on on-court matters for a bit.
“It was a tough week for us,” he said on Saturday night after the Nets overcame a 12-point fourth-quarter hole to beat the Hornets in Charlotte, 98-94. “It’s always good to just get back to the game. Once the ball is tipped, all the [nonsense] goes out the window. I think everybody was just waiting to get back to playing.”
The adversity has been well-documented. The Nets (4-6) still don’t have a permanent head coach after Steve Nash departed. They are 2-1 under acting coach Jacque Vaughn. Both wins came without Kyrie Irving, who was suspended without pay by the club on Thursday for at least five games for linking to an antisemitic film on his social media accounts.
But some good news emerged during Sunday’s off-day when the club upgraded Ben Simmons (knee) to questionable for Monday’s game against the Mavericks in Dallas.
Simmons has missed four games in a row. He was back in Brooklyn while the Nets won Friday and Saturday, and presumably will rejoin the club in Dallas to see if he can play for the first time since Oct. 29.
Simmons’ injury was relatively normal news compared to Nash’s departure and Irving’s suspension. It was a routine item in what has not been a routine time period for the Nets.
“I’ve had some weeks — we’ve fired coaches before, guys got injured,” Durant said. “It was just a tough week. I’ve been through some tough weeks before. I don’t want to act like this is some anomaly. There’s a lot of [stuff] that goes on in the NBA. It’s a chaotic league. We’re with each other every day. It’s a six-month, seven-month season. Something is going to happen.
“It was a unique experience, for sure. But a lot of guys have been through different things in this league before and a lot of guys have been through some adversity in this league off the court.
“Having to lock back in and focus solely on the game, I think that we all get a little bit of solace in doing that, just playing the game of basketball, getting that camaraderie, that fellowship with your teammates, I think that was able to get us through.”
Durant scored 27 points on Saturday, including the go-ahead three-pointer with just over a minute left in regulation.
Without Irving and with a limited Simmons, the Nets for now are pretty much Durant and a lot of role players. But at least any adversity they face on the court will be simpler to deal with than the Nash and Irving situations.
“There’s going to be more peaks and valleys throughout the season,” Durant said. “But this is probably going to be the toughest thing we deal with as a group. To know that we can get through this and continue to stick together, I think that’s important.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
