Durant back (again)
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Just the right way to bring in the New Year, with a fully whole roster.
Kevin Durant will play tonight against the Suns, Scott Brooks confirmed at shootaround this morning.
Durant’s minutes will fall somewhere in the “mid-thirties” Brooks said. But Durant says he feels great and that his ankle, while still a little sore, is good enough to go.
“I’m feeling good. I’m just ready to play, man,” he said. “I really can’t talk too much about it. I feel like I’ve been working out for five months, not really being able to play. So to get some game action will be fun.”
This will be Durant’s 10th game this season. The Thunder are 7-2 when he plays, with Durant only playing a half in one of the losses, in which he dropped 30 on the Warriors before spraining his ankle.
“I didn’t play as well as I wanted to [after coming back],” he said. “But I felt like I was starting to hit my stride and feel better. But that’s a part of the game. It’s the first time it’s really hit me, the injury side of it. But I just had to stay strong and keep working and do things I had to do to get back on the floor. It was definitely tough not playing because I love to play. But I know it’s a part of the game and I wasn’t trying to feel sorry for myself.”
Durant said his conditioning could be a bit of an issue tonight, particularly against the fast-playing Suns.
“Being out for a month and then playing for two weeks, then being out another two weeks, I’m up and down as far as my conditioning is concerned,” he said. “But I feel good and I know coach is going to do a good job with my minutes. So I’ve just got to play as hard as I can while I’m out there and use those timeouts to rest.”
The Thunder sit at 15-17, and have a chance to gain ground on the eight-seed tonight. Still, no anxiety is billowing out of the Thunder practice facility on the last day of 2014.
“Man, we can’t look at it that way. We’ve got to take it a game at a time,” he said. “That’s what we said when I first came back. We were 5-13 and and everybody was panicking then… We can’t win those games in a month unless we play these games now.”
