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FILE – Kevin Durant # 7 of the Brooklyn Nets dribbles the ball during the second half against the Washington Wizards at the Barclays Center on December 13, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Sarah Stier / Getty Images / AFP
Kevin Durant left the Golden State Warriors as a free agent after the 2018-19 season to join forces with Kyrie Irving on the Brooklyn Nets, but due to injuries, the partnership never developed into a single season.
On Tuesday, the Nets will see the tandem in a meaningful game for the first time when Durant makes his Nets debut against the Warriors, who visit Brooklyn with Stephen Curry completely healthy.
Durant is playing his first regular-season game since breaking his Achilles tendon in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors. He spent all of last season recovering, was among the Nets who contracted coronavirus when the pandemic closed the season for four months in March, and played well in two preseason games.
“I feel like every game is important to me,” Durant said after practice Monday. “It doesn’t matter anymore because I’m playing against my old teammates. I feel like basketball is going to have me at that level anyway and it will be good to see some of my old teammates, it’s good to play against them, it’s good to see some of the people I worked with at Golden State. . “
Irving was spectacular in limited action in the 2019-20 season for the Nets, who saw him produce two 50-point games and average a career-high 27.4 points on 47.8 percent shooting. Irving’s strong performances only occurred in 20 games due to shoulder injuries and he is playing a meaningful game for the first time since Feb. 1, when he injured his shoulder in a clash with Washington’s Bradley Beal.
Without their stars, the Nets finished the regular season 35-37 and were swept in the playoffs by Toronto. The Nets ran out of Spencer Dinwiddie and DeAndre Jordan on the bubble, but they got a spectacular performance from Caris LeVert, who averaged 25 points at the restart and also scored 51 points shortly before the league came to a halt.
In addition to adding Durant and Irving, the Nets are introducing new coach Steve Nash, who worked with Durant at Golden State. Nash is Brooklyn’s third coach in the past nine months, replacing Jacque Vaughn, who replaced Kenny Atkinson on March 7, four days before the season was halted.
“It’s like the first day of school, everyone is excited and ready to go,” Nash said. “Obviously, there is additional interest due to all these developments.”
Golden State struggled in the 2019-20 season and finished with a 15-50 record, the worst in the league. Curry was limited to five games due to a broken left hand, and Klay Thompson missed the season with a torn left anterior cruciate ligament that he sustained in the NBA Finals in June 2019. In November, he tore his tendon Achilles right and won’t be available this season either.
In the five games Curry played, he averaged 20.8 points and scored 29 points apiece in his last two exhibition games this season.
“He’s one of the all-time greats and we have to pay close attention to him, especially this season, I think with Klay out,” Nash said. “He’s going to shoot from everywhere, early and often, and that is the way it must be because he’s the greatest shooter of all time.”
In addition to getting Curry back, the Warriors are also bringing Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Oubre Jr. and rookie James Wiseman into the mix.
Wiggins averaged 19.4 points on 45.7 percent shooting in 12 games after being acquired from Minnesota, while Oubre averaged 18.7 points in 56 games for Phoenix last season. Wiseman was the second overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft after averaging 19.7 points in three games in Memphis; he is expected to be Golden State’s starting center.
“From what we have now, I love where we are,” Curry said during training camp. “I love the fact that we have enough pieces, enough talent, enough experience to surprise a lot of people this year and try to compete at the top of the West.”
While the Warriors anticipate how three major new pieces will fare along with a healthy Curry, they won’t have Draymond Green, who is expected to miss the game with a muscle strain in his right foot.
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