Kevin Durant said he’s looking forward to another season with the Brooklyn Nets, instead of looking back on a tumultuous offseason that saw the NBA superstar request a trade and reportedly ask for his coach and general manager’s dismissal.
"Can we move on past that at some point?" Durant told reporters following Friday’s practice. "I know it’s an interesting story. I know that it took up most of the offseason and drama sells. I get that, but I didn’t miss any games, I didn’t miss any practices.
"I’m still here, so hopefully we can move past that."
Durant is back for a third season in Brooklyn after eventually rescinding the trade demand that created a firestorm around NBA circles for much of the summer. The 2013-14 league MVP and two-time NBA Finals MVP acknowledged during Monday’s media day that he’s no longer at odds with the organisation after ironing out his differences in a lengthy discussion with team owner Joe Tsai in August.
"I was upset," Durant stated. "And as a family, they understood that I was upset, some of the stuff they agreed with. So we talked about it, and it was over a couple of months, a couple of weeks, towards the end of that where we talked about it.
"We came out and we voiced all our concerns about how we can all be better. And it just worked out from there, and I’m glad I’m here now."
Durant refused to expound on the rumours that he also requested the firings of head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks following the Nets’ disappointing and injury-plagued 2021-22 season.
"There’s a lot of (stuff) that was inaccurate," he said. "But it’s like I don’t want to go through it right now."
Nash also said earlier this week that he didn’t entirely believe the reports that Durant had asked for his ousting.
"I never thought that was 100 per cent," he said. "It’s not black and white like that, so there was a lot of factors. A lot of things behind the scenes. A lot of things that are reported are not 100 per cent accurate. So you get fragmented bits of truth. You get things that are flat out not true. It happens. So I never really got caught up in all that stuff.”
With his differences behind him, Durant said he’s eagerly awaiting the new season and the chance for the Nets to erase the memory of a turbulent 2021-22 campaign that saw the franchise trade disgruntled All-Star James Harden midseason and had Kyrie Irving limited to just 29 games, in large part due to New York City’s vaccination requirement that prevented the star point guard from playing most of the team’s home games.
The Nets also head into 2022-23 with a healthy Ben Simmons, the key player Brooklyn received from the Philadelphia 76ers in the Harden trade. The three-time All-Star has yet to appear in a game with the Nets and missed all of last season due to a lingering feud with his former team and a back injury that later required surgery.
"When you look at the grand scheme of things, we haven’t been healthy at all for two years," Durant said. "Each playoffs we didn’t have major guys, (they) miss minutes. Not just role players, but guys that make a lot of money.
"When you got $50 million dollars on your bench this last playoffs with Joe [Harris] and Ben and then the playoffs before that, I want to see what our team looks like in full, with guys being healthy, with us having a little bit of continuity. So we’ll see what happens."
Timberwolves demolish Nuggets to force Game 7
The Minnesota Timberwolves needed a win to keep their season alive.
They proceeded to obliterate the Denver Nuggets.
The Timberwolves rode a 20-0 run in the first quarter en route to a 115-70 thrashing of the Nuggets on Thursday to force a Game 7 in their Western Conference semi-final series.
Anthony Edwards led the way with 27 points and Jaden McDaniels added 21 on 8-of-10 shooting as Minnesota recorded the second-largest play-off win in NBA history when facing elimination.
The Wolves led by as much as 50 to send the series back to Denver on Sunday with a berth in the West finals on the line.
After winning the first two games of the series in Denver, Minnesota suddenly found itself on the brink of elimination after losing Games 3 and 4 on its home court and Tuesday's 112-97 defeat back in Denver.
The Timberwolves then trailed 9-2 early in Game 6 before turning the tables on the Nuggets.
They scored the next 20 points and went on a 27-2 run on their way to taking a 31-14 lead after the first 12 minutes.
Edwards sparked the first-quarter surge, racking up 14 points in the opening period after scoring 18 total points in Game 5.
The Wolves clamped down defensively and dominated the boards to turn Game 6 into a laugher.
Minnesota limited Denver to just 7-of-36 shooting from 3-point range (19.4 per cent) and held a 62-43 advantage on the glass, with big men Rudy Gobert (14), Karl-Anthony Towns (13) and Naz Reid (11) combining for 38 boards.
NBA MVP Nikola Jokic had 22 points and nine rebounds for the defending champions, but Jamal Murray struggled mightily from the floor, making just 4-of-18 shots and finishing with 10 points.
Mike Conley returned after missing Game 5 because of soreness in his right Achilles tendon, and finished with 14 points, four rebounds and four assists.
The Timberwolves opened the fourth quarter on a 7-2 run to open up a 30-point lead, prompting the Nuggets to empty their bench just over two minutes into the final period.
Less than 90 seconds later, that lead grew to 36 points and Minnesota took out its starters.
The Wolves bench picked up right where the starters left off to finish off a 24-0 run as the lead ballooned to 50.
Mavs coach Kidd: Doncic is 'not a robot'
Jason Kidd reminded the media that Luka Doncic is "not a robot" after the Dallas Mavericks star turned in a peculiar display against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Doncic delivered his best performance of the playoffs on Wednesday, finishing with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in a 104-92 victory.
The Mavericks are now just one win away from the Western Conference finals.
But what was different about Doncic's night was the fact he rarely remonstrated with the officials, having previously expanded a lot of energy doing just that in Game 4 of the series.
"He's human; he's not a robot," Kidd said.
"Sometimes we just pencil in that he's going to put in 30, 10 and 10. You know the playoffs are hard mentally and physically.
"Before the game, understand you are not going to get any calls on the road. You got to understand you got to play through it."
For Doncic, it was a case of just focusing on what he could control.
"Just focus on basketball," Doncic said. "Remember the thing I love, the thing I love to do. Just play basketball.
"I talked to them [the officials] normally, without complaining.
"I think it was the whole game, nothing. So I just go out there and hoop. Have fun, have fun. It was the old Luka, a smile on my face."
Doncic's teammate Derrick Jones Jr suggested the Slovenian's sharpness in the warm-up told him all he needed to know about what was to come.
"I was just sitting back saying, 'It's going to be a long day for them,'" Jones said.
"Once he gets his rhythm and he's got it going, you can't stop him."
Kyrie Irving believes Doncic can take lessons from his Game 5 performance.
"I think he can learn from this tonight as well as all of us and just continue to affirm to himself that when he is focused on just his game and he's focused on doing the right things, then we flourish as a team," he said.
"I'm not going to sit up here and complain about him. I'm not going to do that.
"I've got to give my brother a little benefit of the doubt. Sometimes it is warranted to get on the guys that are refereeing the game, but I think he found a healthy balance tonight where he was just really focused on getting us going offensively and making the right plays and making sure that we kept our foot on the gas pedal."
Return to Eastern Conference finals a sign of Boston's character, claims Tatum
Jayson Tatum believes the Boston Celtics' return to the Eastern Conference finals shows the character of the team.
Boston beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 113-98 on Wednesday to book their place in the Conference finals for a third straight season.
It is the sixth time in the past eight years that the Celtics have reached the finals.
"It just shows the character of the team, the organisation," said Tatum, who led Boston with 25 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.
"People might think that it's a given that we're supposed to be here, but I give a lot of credit to everyone in the front office, the coaching staff, the trainers, the guys that hand out the equipment, the ball boys, the cooks, the chefs, the security team. We're all in this together. I do, I mean that.
"Everybody has an effect on each other, and we all impact each other to help winning and build this culture that we have.
"Everybody should be proud of themselves. Obviously, it's not the end all, be all. We want to win a championship, but we're doing something right."
Coach Joe Mazzulla lauded the mentality and attitude of his team.
"Close-out games are tough. It's a level of stress, anxiety, desperation; it takes what it takes," he said. "You've got to play 48 [minutes] hopefully, maybe more at times.
"And at the end of the day, you just got to keep going, continue to chip away at the things you can control."
The Celtics will face either the New York Knicks or the Indiana Pacers for a place in the Championship game.
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