Brooklyn Nets Star Kevin Durant To Return Thursday Against Miami

Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant will return for Thursday’s game with the Miami Heat, the team announced Wednesday.

Durant has been out since mid-January with a left MCL sprain.

Brooklyn was 27-15 (.643) and the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference when Durant went down, but have gone just 5-16 (.250) since.

The Nets (32-31) are now the No. 8 seed in the East, three games back of No. 7 Toronto, against whom they just lost two in a row. Brooklyn is only three games ahead of Washington, the No. 11 seed. Seeds 7-10 will compete in the play-in tournament.

The Nets hope Durant’s return will help propel them on a late-season run up the standings.

“Kevin Durant’s return is imminent to Brooklyn,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said Saturday on ABC. “It could be Monday, Tuesday — they play Toronto back to back — Thursday against the Heat. But essentially, it’s this — it’s Kevin Durant waking up one morning, telling Brooklyn, ‘I am ready to play,’ and, ‘I feel ready.’ He has looked terrific in practice. The expectation is he’s going to play this week.”

Nets coach Steve Nash previously said Durant — and the Nets other injured players — need “a number of high-intensity workouts” before returning to game action, and that involves “playing at full capacity three times.” He said Saturday that Durant has done it twice so far.

The Nets still await the debut of Ben Simmons and will only have Kyrie Irving for seven of their remaining 19 games, unless New York’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate changes.