Kevin Durant out 4-6 weeks with left knee sprain

League’s leading scorer will miss at least one month.

Just when it seemed as if the Brooklyn Nets were poised to get back to some semblance of normalcy, the cruel hand of misfortune has reared its ugly head.

The Nets will reportedly be without their leader and top scorer Kevin Durant for a couple of weeks after suffering a knee injury in their win against the Pelicans Saturday night.

There’s optimism within Nets that will be a four-to-six week rehab and return for Kevin Durant, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/xKYtu0l4VL

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 16, 2022

The injury happened midway through the second quarter with the Nets well on their way to a dominating win. Nets guard Bruce Brown fell into Durant’s knee causing the superstar forward to wince in pain.

Durant would leave the game and did not return as the Nets ruled him out with a left knee sprain.

Sunday morning the team announced that, after undergoing an MRI, Durant was diagnosed with a sprained medial collateral of the left knee.

Terrible timing

This comes as a devastating blow for the Nets who are set to embark on a four-game road trip. Once again injuries have prevented the Nets’ Big 3 of Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden from gracing the floor together as it feels like a déjà vu of last season when the trio only played eight regular-season games together.

Looking on the bright side of this unfortunate set of circumstances is a few things. The injury was a sprain and not a tear of any kind which means surgery is not required. The Nets will also play 12 of their next 17 games on the road which means Kyrie is eligible to play in 11 of them.

The one road game he is not eligible for is Brooklyn’s Feb 16th matchup against the Knicks at MSG. Last season the duo of Irving and Harden went 16-3 in games Durant did not play.

When will KD be back?

If Durant meets the reported timetable and returns following the All-Star break (Feb 18-23), the Big 3 will be able to play in eight of the final 23 games on the season barring any update to Irving’s vaccination status.

Durant currently leads the league in scoring (29.3 ppg) and is the leading vote-getter in All-Star voting for the Eastern Conference.