Kevin Durant to return Wednesday for Oklahoma City Thunder

By Cory Buck | Dec 31, 2014

Dec 25, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder bench including Kevin Durant reacts to a play against the San Antonio Spurs during the second half at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant is set to return to the lineup on Wednesday for the first time since suffering an injury on December 18.

Scott Brooks confirmed to Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman that Kevin Durant will suit up for the Oklahoma City Thunder after missing over a week with a sprained ankle injury. The Thunder plan to start Durant and play him as usual to get back on the winning trail. The team hosts the Phoenix Suns in New Year’s Eve action between two teams jockeying for playoff position.

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Brooks told Mayberry that ‘Durant will take his customary place in the starting lineup and play 30-plus minutes.’ The Thunder will take every bit of it as they claw for footing in the ever-treacherous Western Conference.

The Suns sit at eighth place on the last day of 2014 while Oklahoma City sits in tenth, so this is a big mid-season test for the Thunder, who have struggled all year thanks to injuries that have limited Durant to just nine games played. As a result, the Thunder have plummeted to lows not seen since the years before Durant’s arrival.

Despite the start to his and his team’s season, Durant isn’t about to hit the panic button, as one might expect with 50 games remaining on the schedule.

“We just got to take it a game at a time,” Durant said. “That’s what I said when I first came back (from the fractured foot). We were, like, 5-13 and everybody was panicking then. So we just got to take it a game at a time. We can’t win those games in a month unless we play these games now.”

In his nine appearances on the year, Durant’s numbers have been solid, if not quite up to his career averages. He’s posted 22 points per game, which is great, but not quite what we’re used to from the NBA MVP. That’s been plenty for the Thunder though, who went 7-2 in that nine-game stretch with a healthy Durant.

The Thunder star left the team’s loss on December 18 when he stepped on the foot of Golden State Warriors center Marreese Speights and sprained his ankle.

While Russell Westbrook and the rest of the Thunder roster did its best to stay afloat in the race to this point, the team’s playoff chances rest on the health of Kevin Durant. To that end, the Thunder are hoping that a new year will bring new luck in that department as they start 2015 with their star back in the fold.

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