Just over 24 hours before the Brooklyn Nets were set to host the Utah Jazz, the team announced the players unavailable for the game. Part of the small group of three, former two-time Finals MVP Kevin Durant:
Brooklyn Nets @HSpecialSurgery Status Report for tomorrow night's game vs. Utah:
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) January 4, 2021
Durant (health and safety protocols) - OUT
Dinwiddie (partially torn ACL, right knee) - OUT
Claxton (right knee tendinopathy) - OUT
The team hasn't announced the exact cause for Durant to be placed under the league's 'health and safety protocols'.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Malika Andrews, the exposure to a positive COVID-19 test focrces the 6'10" forward into a 7-day quarantine as per the new guidelines.
Kevin Durant's facing a 7-day quarantine under league protocols because of exposure to a positive COVID-19 case, sources tell ESPN. He had the coronavirus in May, continues to register antibodies and has tested negative in multiple recents tests. He'd miss 4 games in next week. https://t.co/HFHFKHolte
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 4, 2021
The ESPN report further states that the earliest he can return, if he continues to test negative, is against the Denver Nuggets on Jan. 12, which implies that he would miss the team's next four games - vs. Utah, vs. Philadelphia, @ Memphis, and vs. Oklahoma City.
Through their first seven games of the 2020-21 season, the Nets have a record of 3-4 with all of those losses coming in the last five games.
Playing in six of those games, Durant is averaging 28.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.8 assists on shooting splits of .514/.455/.885.
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