Even when things go wrong for the Nets — and there certainly hasn’t been any shortage of that this season — Kevin Durant has proven he can make it right.
On a night when they lost Seth Curry to a sprained ankle, and Steve Nash confirmed that Ben Simmons’ mysterious back ailment is actually a herniated disc, Durant did what he does best — which is to say dominate and dominate in such a way that shows that no one can count the Nets out. Even without Simmons. And even, often, without Kyrie Irving.
Durant had 37 points with nine rebounds and eight assists and the Nets put together a monstrous third quarter as they turned aside the Jazz, 114-106, at Barclays Center for their sixth win in seven games. What’s more, they did it mostly without Curry, who injured himself in the second quarter, and without bigs LaMarcus Aldridge (right hip impingement) and Andre Drummond (non-COVID-19 illness), whom they certainly could have used against Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside.
A 13-2 Jazz run late in the fourth made it interesting, but Nic Claxton’s alley-oop from Durant with 37.4 seconds left was the final momentum-killer the Nets needed.
With the performance, Durant has his 20th 30-plus point game of the season, fourth-most in franchise history, and he surpasses Jerry West as 22nd on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
Bruce Brown kicked in a season-high 22 points with seven rebounds, making it his second 20-plus point game of the season; he came into the day averaging 14.4 points per game in March, compared to 8.0 points for the season. Donovan Mitchell scored 30 for Utah (45-27).
The Nets (38-34) turned a six-point deficit with about three minutes left in the second quarter to a two-point halftime lead, courtesy of an 8-0 run. The momentum started shifting before that, though, with Kevin Durant’s catch-and-shoot corner three off Bruce Brown’s inbounds pass with five minutes to go. Durant scored seven points in the second quarter, and Brown’s free throws with 50.5 seconds left allowed them to go into the third up 53-51.
They never trailed again, outscoring the Jazz 38-24 in the third, led by Durant, who scored 15, and Claxton, who scored 11 of his 15 points while making the best of the extra playing time afforded to him with Drummond and Aldridge out.
In all, the night helped put a brighter spin of the various adversities they continue to face with only 10 games left in the regular season. There’s still no indication that Irving will be allowed to play at home because of his vaccination status, the Simmons news seems to get worse every time there’s a real update, and Curry, a true bright spot since the trade that brought him here along with Simmons and Drummond, tripped and sprained his left ankle with three minutes left in the second quarter. It’s the same ankle that caused him to miss three games earlier this month, and the same ankle Curry said has been bothering him since January. He said last week that he could only hope to manage discomfort for the rest of the season.
That came just hours after Nash confirmed Simmons’ herniated disc — a recurrence of an injury that nagged him in 2020 — which he’s been dealing with for weeks. Simmons had an epidural last week, and Nash said he believes it relieved some discomfort, but he didn’t know to what extent. The Nets still expect Simmons to play this year, but he hasn’t progressed to practicing yet, and given he hasn’t played since last June, there’s a good degree of uncertainty to his future this season. As far as Nash knows, surgery has not been discussed.
The Nets not being forthcoming about Simmons has been standard procedure since he came to Brooklyn. Last week, Nash revealed Simmons had an MRI on the back “weeks ago” and that it did not come back clean, though, at the time, he did not specify the nature of the injury. The Nets previously typified it as tightness or soreness.
“I don’t think it changes the outcome necessarily,” Nash said Monday of the diagnosis. “We still have high hopes that he can come back. He’s had moments during his rehab where he’s on the court doing some things, and it looks like he’s about to turn a corner, and then there’s a setback. So, I still feel optimistic that he can play for us.”
