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Kevin Durant suffers knee injury, will miss a month

Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant suffered a knee injury during Sunday night’s game against the Miami Heat and is expected to miss at least one month of action.

The Brooklyn Nets faced off against the Miami Heat on Sunday, where the Nets took a close victory in a 102-101 win over the Heat, but not without the loss of Kevin Durant during the second half of the game. 

With about 1:00 left in the third quarter, the Nets were on defense when Heat star forward Jimmy Butler went up for a layup and was blocked by Ben Simmons. Upon falling from the block, Butler fell onto the right knee of Durant, which caused Durant to miss the rest of the game. Kyrie Irving led the team in points with 29, as Durant was behind him with 17 points before going down in the third quarter.  

This is what the Brooklyn Nets stated on Twitter in regard to Durant’s injury: 

How the Nets’ lineup will be affected by Durant’s injury remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, is that the injury of their star scorer will have a negative impact on the offense. This could mean Irving stepping up to the plate and being the primary scorer and carrying the offensive load for the team, an opportunity for guys like T.J. Warren or Yuta Watanabe to play well in a temporary starting spot at small forward, or the Nets may collapse and the lack of Durant’s presence will be clear to see throughout the games that he will be missing. 

The Nets are set to return home to Brooklyn and face the Boston Celtics on Thursday, which will be an interesting lens to see how the Nets will fare without their primary scorer on the court.