Durant couldn’t put pressure on his leg and went straight to the locker room. Hopefully, this isn’t a bad injury.
A deafening silence fell upon Oracle Arena, the type of silence that only overtakes a raucous crowd when something devastating happens. It happened after Kevin Durant reached for his leg, then limped off the court in an apparent non-contact injury during Game 5 of Warriors-Rockets on Thursday. It doesn’t get any more devastating than that.
The Warriors are calling Durant’s injury a right calf strain. He did not return to Game 5, and his injury status for Game 6 is uncertain. Yahoo!’s Chris Haynes says Durant will undergo an MRI on Thursday. An MRI has never lied. The basketball world awaits the results.
Here’s how it happened.
Durant elevated over Danuel House and made a mid-range jump shot he’s made thousands of times in his life. But when he ran back on defense, stopped to look down at his leg. Then, he realized he couldn’t put pressure on it, and began walking straight to the locker room.
Oh no. Durant to the locker room after taking a bad step... pic.twitter.com/0HqjNcfUwa
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) May 9, 2019
TNT broadcaster and Hall of Fame ball player Reggie Miller initially feared the worst: that it could have been an Achilles injury similar to the one that claimed the latter half of Kobe Bryant’s career, and also sidelined Demarcus Cousins for good portions of last year and this season. For now, the diagnosis of a right calf strain is a sigh of relief.
We will wait for more updates in the days to come, as an MRI could reveal more about his injury.