Kawakami: Exactly when the Warriors need Kevin Durant the most, nobody seems to know exactly what’s happening
By Tim Kawakami Jun 7, 2019
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You can imagine the frustration Kevin Durant is feeling now and you can imagine the frustration the entire Warriors franchise is feeling now, too.
As always, two separate things:
Durant on the one side, trying to get back in time to help save the season and not knowing if his right calf will allow it.
And everybody else on the Warriors — particularly his teammates — on the other side, pretty much just waiting for him.
Waiting for Durant. Waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And … wait, is it too late?
There are no absolutes here, let’s make that clear. It’s all about Durant’s calf and a recovery period that can last over a month; he was injured exactly 30 days before Friday’s Game 4 at Oracle Arena. Only he knows how much it hurts. Only the doctors and medical staffers know the extent of the damage.
Durant, of course, missed this game, his ninth in a row. And with Klay Thompson and Kevon Looney both rushing back from their own injuries, the Warriors were still badly outmanned and lost to the Raptors 105-92, pushing them to the brink of elimination, now down 3-1 in the Finals.
The Warriors need Durant in Game 5 on Monday in Toronto or else this series is likely over — and maybe the dynasty is, too. They needed Durant on Friday. Toronto is too fast, focused and talented for the Warriors to survive without Durant. That much has been clear since the start of this series.
And about a week ago, the Warriors thought he was on the verge of coming back; Durant was a big presence in the locker room all last week while they were in Toronto. He was working out. Hopes were raised. The best player in the league seemed set to rejoin the action. Everything sounded on track for him to return by Game 4 or Game 5 at the very latest.
But now, the Warriors are down 3-1 and they’re still waiting. It’s almost too late.
I asked Steve Kerr after Friday’s loss: Has the team maybe gotten too caught up in waiting for Durant?
“No, I don’t think so,” Kerr said after his news conference. “Our guys internally, we see him every day. We’re aware of his progress and we’re aware of the limitations of where he is. So there’s certainly a hope — there’s been a hope that he could do it, that he could come back. But it is what it is. The guys are just playing.
“I don’t think there’s a sense of disappointment or anything. This is just the way it goes.”
But there are signals. There are hints that something changed somewhere in the last few days, maybe involving the recovery or the doctors or Durant’s decision-making process. And it’s hard to get a real read from Durant because he’s dropped back mostly out of sight the last few days and he doesn’t sit on the bench during games the way Thompson and Looney did when they missed Game 3.
The larger question: Has Durant fought to get back into action the way Thompson and Looney did for Game 4? It’s unclear. It’s impossible to know. Maybe he has.
But just read what Thompson said when he was asked how he came back from his own injury to play so well on Friday:
“I think it’s just based on the NBA Finals and the chance to be at this stage and compete. A lot of guys are banged up, probably on both sides, both teams, and it’s just such a special opportunity, you just never know when it will ever come back again.”
Or what Stephen Curry said when he was talking about Thompson’s comeback:
“Definitely, he makes our entire team better. He showed that tonight obviously with the injury like that and to come back playing aggressive, hitting big shots and giving us a chance to even be in the game. So, obviously, he’s a gamer, and you love to go to war with guys like that. We have been doing it for a long time.”
I’m not trying to take those comments out of context. Those are words Thompson said about his own motivation and Curry said about Thompson’s stirring return. They are not about Durant in any specific way.
In fact, Durant worked out with team medical staffers on Thursday. He worked out again on Friday at team headquarters before the game. He was supposed to be moving toward a full practice with the team.
And yet, that hasn’t happened yet and may never happen. Was there a setback? ESPN’s Jalen Rose reported on Friday that Durant’s Thursday workout went poorly and Rose predicted that Durant wouldn’t play in this series.
But however that Thursday session went, Durant still went through the workout on Friday and I heard no negative reports from it. The only thing I continue to hear is that the Warriors are still waiting.
It’s really nobody’s fault. It’s just that Durant is in indefinite limbo and the Warriors are one loss away from elimination.
“There’s been hope that he will come back the whole series,” Draymond Green said Friday night. “So that’s not going to change now. Obviously, we hope to have him, but we’ll see what happens.
“We don’t make that final call. … He don’t really even make that final call. His body will tell him if he can get out there or not. And if he can, great; and if not, you still got to try to find a way to win the next game.”
There is broad context to this, of course. Durant has been with this team for three seasons and yet often still seems slightly unattached to the main Warriors sensibility. They are a collective; he is largely independent. They’ve committed to staying together and he is open to leaving as a free agent this summer. They run a connected, free-flowing offense and he sometimes asks for and runs his own version.
Of course, Durant has been absolutely worth it. He’s so good, he’s proven so much by winning two Finals MVPs the previous two seasons, he obviously was worth waiting for in these playoffs. Maybe he’ll make it back for Game 5, play brilliantly and lead the charge to a championship. Maybe he won’t make it back and the Warriors will win anyway.
It’s impossible to know. It’s probably a bit cynical to even attempt to analyze. But just ask yourself this: If Thompson or Looney or Curry or Green or Andre Iguodala had this injury 30 days ago, would the Warriors still be waiting for them?
— Reported from Oakland
fleeced man
