Nets' LaMarcus Aldridge, Nic Claxton to make trip to Cleveland

The Nets are choosing to be cautious with LaMarcus Aldridge and Nic Claxton, both of whom were out for Saturday night’s game against the Pelicans but are very close to returning, Steve Nash said.

Aldridge, who has right foot soreness, and Claxton, who has left hamstring tightness, will travel with the team to Cleveland for Monday’s game.

"They’re both progressing well," Nash said. "We feel really positive about them returning soon."

The Nets have battled injuries, along with a recent COVID outbreak, for much of the season, and on Thursday, those injuries, along with needed rest for players during a challenging stretch of the schedule, led to a 130-109 drubbing by the Thunder.

Harden anniversary

Sunday marks the one-year anniversary of James Harden’s debut with the Nets, a game in which he memorably recorded a triple-double.

"It’s been an incredible coup for us to have James in our program and there was a lot of bad luck last year, just the amount of games that we were able to play whole, I think," Nash said. "There’s a little disappointment in the fact that we never had a real crack at it with full health or even close to full health . . . He’s just brought so much to our team with his skill level and ability . . . We’re still alive and building. We’ve had a lot more thrown at us this year, but we’re used to it and I think these opportunities to overcome afford you a lot more in the end."

Durant fined

Kevin Durant was fined $15,000 for profane language used Monday in a postgame news conference after the Nets lost to the Trail Blazers, the league announced Friday.

The NBA also said Durant "fail[ed] to comply with an NBA Security interview as part of the review process."

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.