Monty Williams Not Worried About Kevin Durant's Rusty Return From Injury
It wasn't the home debut Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant wanted on a personal level, yet he and his teammates will happily take the end result in a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Durant started colt - ice cold - with a 2-for-11 start shooting from the field before eventually finding his groove in the second half.
“If you look at the shooting numbers, you’re like, ‘that’s not Kevin.’ It’s his first time, fourth time playing in who knows how long, but I think the way he stayed with it when he hit the three in the third quarter, like that’s Kevin," Suns coach Monty Williams said following the win.
"He’s not going to run from those types of shots and I thought he battled on both ends. I think his cardio has got to get back to the level where he wants it, once he gets that, you’ll see the Kevin that we all know, so I don’t want to grade. I thought his competitive edge was there tonight and I thought he just hung in there and at the end, he was in the corner and Chris, Book, DA were in the middle third playing like that’s something we can go to. If you put Kevin in the corner because nobody wants to leave him because if you do, he’ll knock that shot down.”
Durant finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists, showing visible frustration at times on the court. Williams says that's part of the process.
“I’m sure he was. He’s used to making every shot; he just doesn’t miss. You watch him in practice and his warmups and his workouts, he just doesn’t miss a lot of shots. He’s a rare breed," Williams said.
"He’s one of the few guys that feels like he should make every single shot and my job is to encourage him when he doesn’t because there’s more to his game than just offense, even though he’s one of the greatest offensive players we’ve ever seen. So I’m sure he was because he wants to make every shot.”
In Durant's first return from injury, it looked as if he missed no time in scoring totals of 23, 20 and 37 before spraining his ankle.
The Suns hope Durant's "off night" was simply due to jitters. They return to action Friday against the West's top team in the Denver Nuggets.
