Kevin Durant threatens to play 48 minutes and ‘give you something to talk about’

Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant defends notion that he needs less minutes as he comes off a day of rest sitting out against the Houston Rockets. 

Truth be told, the the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference likely didn’t take the No. 13 team in the Western Conference all that seriously.

When the Brooklyn Nets took on the Houston Rockets on Wednesday, Nets star Kevin Durant sat out of the game during a day of rest. That left only James Harden in, the last of the Big 3 the Nets signed on in an effort to build an East Coast superteam.

The calculated move ultimately fell short of success, as the Nets lost 104-114 to the Rockets. Nets coach Steve Nash joked about how the media has been on him for giving Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge excessive minutes recently.

“I told them [the media] have been really on me for giving them some rest so…” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “No, I think obviously we know they’ve had a lot of minutes recently.”

“I think they both wanted to play, but it was an opportunity to try to get a little bit of rest during this tough stretch,” Nash said. “Especially without Joe [Harris] in the lineup, it puts more pressure on guys. We’re just taking a chance and rolling the dice a bit here.”

In the past five games, Durant has averaged 40.4 minutes during the Nets’ previous five games before Houston. The 33-year-old has been averaging 36.2 minutes per game this season, putting him within the NBA’s top 10 of minutes played this season.

Despite the big minutes and the concern some may have over his Achilles tendon injury, Durant is adamant that he wants to be in and play the game — even if that means the entire game.

“I know people may be concerned about my minutes and I got injured before and all this extra s**t… we’ll figure that out if I get there,” Durant said. “Right now, I wanna play basketball.”

After a long pause, Durant laughed and added, “I might play 48 tomorrow, just cause it’ll give y’all something to talk about.”

Kevin Durant doesn’t mind big minutes, even if it means up to 48 minutes

While injury concern is always present for NBA stars, especially those who are aging and at risk due to prior injury, Durant emphasizes that he gets plenty of rest between regular season games.

“We had two games in between the last couple of games, so I’ve been sitting at home a lot to be honest,” Durant said.

Durant also reassured reporters that Nash isn’t doing anything that would put him at risk.

“He’s been around me long enough to know when it’s one of these games where I want to stay in,” Durant said.

It makes sense that Nash would want to keep Durant in for the majority of the game. The Nets are leading the Eastern Conference at 17-8, and Durant is leading the NBA as its top scorer with 28.4 points per game.