OAKLAND, Calif. — Golden State Warriors star forward Kevin Durant will miss Games 3 and 4 of the Western Conference finals against the Portland Trail Blazers. The plan is for him to be evaluated in one week, the Warriors said in a statement released Thursday night.
Durant, who hasn’t played since he strained his calf in the third quarter of the Warriors’ Game 5 win over the Houston Rockets in the conference semifinals, won’t travel with the team to Portland for Games 3 and 4, Warriors president of basketball operations Bob Myers told NBC Bay Area in a pregame appearance.
Game 5, if needed, would be in Oakland Wednesday, and with the reevaluation scheduled to take place in a week, it seems Durant would be out for that game if it’s needed.
“It’s a little more serious than we thought at the very beginning, so we’ll see where it goes,” coach Steve Kerr said after the Warriors’ 114-111 Game 2 win on Thursday night.
In the statement, the Warriors said Durant “has shown good progress since beginning his rehabilitation program one week ago. At this point, Durant is not ready to advance to on-court work.”
As for injured center DeMarcus Cousins, he continues to do his own rehab work following a torn quad injury suffered in Game 2 of the Western Conference quarterfinals against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Cousins has “progressed to on-court work, but is still not ready for live actions,” the Warriors said in their statement.
At this time, the plan is for both players to be reevaluated in one week.
Initially, the Warriors listed Cousins as being “unlikely” to return this season after suffering the injury, but the Warriors have been pleased with the way his body is responding to the rehab.
“DeMarcus is coming along,” Kerr told reporters before Thursday’s game. “He’s starting to do some work on the floor, so he’s not exactly close to playing in a game, but he’s making good strides with his rehab and getting out on the court and starting to do some conditioning things. We’ll see where that goes.”