Nets’ Durant, Irving to sit out Monday’s gameon December 28, 2020 at 8:31 pm

NEW YORK — Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving will not play in the second game of the Brooklyn Nets‘ first back-to-back of the season.

Both players are listed as being out for injury recovery against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night.

Durant missed a year and a half after tearing his Achilles in June of 2019. The former league MVP said after Sunday’s game against Charlotte that eventually he would like to work up to playing in consecutive games.

“I definitely want to be able to play back-to-backs,” Durant said after Sunday’s game. “Get through ’em healthy and play my normal minutes, so we’ll see.”

Before the game against the Hornets, head coach Steve Nash said that he didn’t have a season-long plan for how Durant will manage back-to-back games.

“I almost don’t want to have a preconceived plan,” Nash said. “We have ideas about limiting the amount of minutes and impact and minute congestion for sure. We want to be careful with different people, with different vulnerabilities and try to make as smart long-term decisions as we can.”

Durant is averaging 26.7 points, 4 rebounds and 3.3 assists this season. He started in both preseason games and all three of the team’s regular-season games. The Nets’ next back-to-back games are on Jan. 7 and 8 against the 76ers and Grizzlies, respectively.

The Nets will also be without Nicolas Claxton — who was diagnosed with right knee tendinopathy in training camp — and Spencer Dinwiddie, who partially tore the ACL in his right knee on Sunday night.

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