Nets have no timeline for Kevin Durant’s return from knee injury

CLEVELAND – The Nets offered no timeline on Kevin Durant’s return to action, and wouldn’t reveal the grade on his strained left medial collateral.

But Brooklyn coach Steve Nash confirmed it’s going to be weeks before the All-Star forward gets evaluated.

“I think we don’t have a timeline, and it’s also a few weeks before we re-evaluate it,” Nash said. “So, right now we’re just going to wait and see how it heels and how he recovers over the next few weeks, and then there will be more of an evaluation and hopefully some sort of timeline.

“I just talked to him at halftime and then I’ve messaged with him but he’s obviously disappointed. The guy loves to play and obviously it’s tough anytime you’re injured but this is just the reality and we just got to stay positive and look forward to the opportunity to play and that it’s not worse.”

Durant suffered the injury when teammate Bruce Brown fell into his knee in the second quarter of Saturday’s home win over the Pelicans.

While Nash wouldn’t say what grade the injury was (“We’re not allowed,” he demurred), ESPN reported Durant is estimated to miss 4-to-6 weeks. That would imply a Grade 2 strain, with Dr. Rajpal Brar saying the average recovery time among NBA players was 41 days.

When Durant suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain in February 2017 playing for Golden State, he missed a little over five weeks before coming back in the last week of the regular-season.

“I haven’t talked to him about that in those terms. But he has been through it,” Nash said. “So, I’m not sure it was the exact same injury, but he’s been through this type of layoff and he’s come back every time he’s been injured as good or better than ever. So I think that should give him confidence that this is just another pause in his season, and then he’ll come back and be back at his full strength.”