After undergoing an MRI today on his injured right calf, Warriors forward Kevin Durant has been diagnosed with a “mild” calf strain, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
Based on the team’s initial fears when Durant left Wednesday’s game with a leg injury, that’s positive news. However, Wojnarowski reports that the team’s leading postseason scorer isn’t expected to be re-evaluated until next week.
In other words, while KD may be able to get back into Golden State’s lineup for the Western Conference Finals, the club will likely have to find a way past the Rockets without him, Woj tweets. Game 6 of that series is scheduled to take place on Friday night, with Game 7 happening on Sunday afternoon. The Warriors currently hold a 3-2 lead.
As Anthony Slater of The Athletic notes (via Twitter), Durant has suffered mild calf strains twice during the last two seasons, and has missed a week in each instance. While he’d certainly like to beat that recovery timetable in this scenario, it would be a risk to rush him back before he’s ready.
Despite being down 3-2 in the series, the Rockets now have a huge opportunity to finally get over the hump against the Warriors. Houston has been extremely competitive even in its losses this series, and will have the chance to even up the series at home tomorrow before potentially returning to the Bay Area for a Game 7.
As for the potential impact on the upcoming offseason, Durant’s injury is minor enough that it shouldn’t affect his market at all. But if his absence contributes to a second-round defeat for Golden State, it would be fascinating to see how the early exit might shape the Warriors’ summer.
Holy f***!
Acting like this makes a difference lol everyone like to say warriors were a championship team without kd and they still are time for klay and dray to earn there money!
That was 5 years ago.
Please take advantage and win this series Houston.
Warriors will find a way to win regardless and we will be stuck watching them at least one more finals. Unfortunately. I actually really use to like the Warriors, when they had that we believe attitude and were built from the draft team but can’t stand them now after adding KD, the way it all went down with adding him from him leaving for the team he lost to that would’ve sent his team to the finals and then getting Cousins even though he’s not been a big factor. Just can’t stand it. If they lose KD and Cousins this offseason, maybe find a way to bring back Barnes, I’d go back to liking them lol.
Yeah but I could see them losing to Milwaukee in the finals
3 out of 5 starters were drafted. They are the absolute blueprint for how to build a franchise.
Exactly. After that first championship they became completely unlikeable.
Only because cp3 isn’t anywhere near as good as iggy
Your jealous attitude shows.
Go Warriors KD in or otherwise…
Gonna enjoy watching the Rockets win this series in front of the Warriors home crowd. Hope they are handing out crying towels that night for their fans.
No horse in this race, but it’s pretty obvious why so many make fun of HOU fans. What a ridiculous comment. Did they hand out “crying towels” for ALL the times HOU got knocked out? Now you need their best player to get hurt to win. Kinda like when you needed Jordan to go play baseball for a couple years so you could win back in the day. Hahaha, what a clown. I hope HOU and that bush league flopping, iso garbage loses… yet again.
Jordan was in the league when the Rockets won their second championship.
Rox would of beat chi in the finals especially the season the rox had Drexler.
Yeah…. NO. Everyone outside of HOU including those that get paid for their opinion, strongly disagrees. Too bad we never got to see it, they weren’t even good enough to get to the Finals after MJ returned… and won 3 more.
Yet Jordan himself said they wouldn’t have….
I hate the Warriors but this is something you just shouldn’t say. I’d never bet against Golden State until they actually lose, and if they advance this is gonna look really bad.
The difference in Rocket fans and Warriors fans we don’t go around for a year crying about 1 injury. No fair Chris Paul got hurt…boo hoo hoo. There is a reason nobody likes the Rockets.
What’s the excuse this season, Houston?
Thank goodness! I was miserable last night thinking that, if it was his achilles, he wouldn’t be able to go to the Knicks and, if THAT happened, the Celtics might get stuck with Kyrie. I feel SO much better!
Wouldn’t be surprised to see the Warriors win regardless.
Tit for tat. Same thing happened to the Rockets last season. CP3. Warriors turn this season. What makes this worse is that KD is the most important player in the Warriors lineup. CP3 was only #2 in the Rockets depth chart. With Durant out, I have a feeling CP3 & Capella will have monster games in games 6 & 7. KD’s absence will not only have a big impact on the a Warriors’ offense. It will have a bigger effect on their defense, believe it or not.
Tit for tat? You’re comparing an aging CP-3 to a top 3 player in the game? Haha, these HOU fans are a trip. Compare their numbers this series, this playoffs and then apologize for embarrassing HOU fans.
They compares CP3 to Iggy and that is just as laughable.
Prime KD to an end of career CP3? Hell even prime CP3 isn’t comparable to prime KD.
Exactly
Archie,
Cp3 was out last year. So was iggy. CLEARLY, after seeing the durantless gsw beat the cp3 rockets, iggy is more valuable than cp3. Sorry, besides you actually believing that Paul is worth your posts proves that you can’t recognize a whiny, pouting primadonna when you see one. Gawd those rockets are embarrassing
Tucker will be on Thompson and Paul on Curry. That’s pretty stout. I think it goes 7 and who knows. Everyone of these games could have gone either way.
Soft
Rockets in 7, Harden will go crazy.
Rockets can game-plan this time and come up with a better response to Durant’s absence. They can drive more but it will be tougher on the perimeter, like in the last game.
Houston is trash. Chris Paul is trash. James harden is and has been over rated for a long time now, as are the Rockets. The rockets inability to beat the warriors without KD proves that. Never understood the hype over Houston, or Harden.
I’m not a fan of either team, but at least GS plays a very entertaining style. HOU’s tired iso, flopping game is not fun to watch at all. HOU clearly relies on weak officiating to win, GS just balls out.
Harden is incredible. He has not been clutch, and I would take five or six guys before him if I could have anyone, but the dude is unguardable.
He’s only unguardable because he’s a flopper. He’s the definition of fake. He gets bogus calls mandated by the league to manufacturer another star. Players can’t defend him like they should because they don’t want to foul out in the first quarter off nonsense foul calls. Harden is a joke. Just wait for the video that shows the thousands of times harden got a foul call that wasn’t really a foul, followed by the letter to league asking to remove all the points harden “scored” based off bogus calls.
Lol. Dude you sound like Tyler Bauer
Man all the things you say sounds just like Curry & the GSW, not Harden. I admire the way Harden plays & I would take him ahead of any player in the Warriors team, that’s for sure! He is unplayable, as simple as!
Yep, I agree @Dodgethis and with actual analysts that say that Harden needs the refs to be successful, KD just needs the ball. Only blind, thirsty meatball HOU homers appreciate the iso, flopping, whiny mess that Harden plays.
That’s a shame. And Steph hasn’t seemed at 100%. Klay is gonna have to be the guy.
jordan, kobe, durant