The two-time champion is expected to quarantine for seven days.
The rocky start to the season that the Brooklyn Nets have gotten off to just got rockier.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, star forward Kevin Durant was deemed to have been exposed to COVID-19 and is expected to quarantine for the required seven days before returning to play.
This comes months after the Nets had a bit of an outbreak themselves in March, when Durant was one of several players to test positive for the disease. Durant will miss four games while in quarantine:
- Jan. 5th vs. Utah Jazz
- Jan. 7th vs. Philadelphia 76ers
- Jan. 8th at Memphis Grizzlies
- Jan. 10th vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
Durant, who is Brooklyn’s leading scorer as well as one of the top scorers in the entire league, will be missing several key games.
The Nets are currently 3-4 and haven’t looked quite as dominant to start the season as many had expected. Both poor defense and turnovers are issues that have carried over from last season into this one.
In Durant’s absence Kyrie Irving, who’s also off to a good start, will be forced to step up and carry most of the load. This four-game span is also crucial for Caris LeVert, who’s been inconsistent to kick off the season.
If Irving can keep it rolling and LeVert can get it together while the rest of the team plays cleaner, less sloppy basketball, it’ll be as though Durant never left.
In six games this season Durant, who missed the 2019-20 season after tearing his right Achilles tendon in Game 5 of the 2019 Finals, is averaging 28.2 PPG, 7 rebounds, 4.2 AST, and 1.2 STL while shooting 51.4% from the field and 45.5% from three.