Getty Image
All eyes have been on Kevin Durant since he went down with, what looked like, a scary lower leg injury during Game 5 of his team’s second-round series against the Houston Rockets. The two-time NBA champ — who was playing better than anyone in this year’s playoffs at the time of the injury — was diagnosed with a right calf strain, which was better news than something like a torn Achilles.
Even with the severity of Kevin Durant’s injury not being major, it’s not all good, because, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelbourne, Durant’s expected to miss at least the first game of the Warriors’ Western Conference Finals series versus the Portland Trail Blazers, with the outlook of returning for Game 2 being slim as well.
Kevin Durant is out for at least Game 1 of the WCF, source tells ESPN. He’s not being re-evaluated until Thursday so it’s “unlikely “ he plays Game 2 either.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) May 13, 2019
With the Warriors now knowing that Kevin Durant will, presumably, still be out for the first two games of the series against the Blazers, they can figure out which lineup works best against a scrappy Blazers team. Even so, the team’s head coach, Steve Kerr, did tell ESPN’s Nick Friedell that he’s optimistic his biggest superstar will return at some point in this round.
Kerr very optimistic that KD will be back to help at some point in conference finals if Warriors can get by the Rockets.
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) May 10, 2019
Even without Durant, the Dubs still have Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, along with a deep bench that proved to be too much for the Rockets in Game 6, so it’s not as if Golden State’s completely handcuffed without their best player.
Still, with Kevin Durant’s return up in the air, Warriors fans might be a little nervous about the Blazers stealing a game early on in the upcoming series, as the two teams split the regular season series two games apiece. If there’s one thing we know about Portland in this Damian Lillard-C.J. McCollum era, it’s that they won’t back down from anyone, so it’ll be interesting to monitor Durant’s status as the series goes on. If he returns at some point, there may be no stopping the Warriors — but the long-term status should the Dubs move onto the NBA Finals is something most fans are probably concerned about at this point.