Live Game Thread: Brooklyn Nets at Golden State Warriors, 8:30 PM EST

Kevin Durant is finally back for the Brooklyn Nets. Their best scorer, best defender, best... everything, will play on Saturday night against his old friends Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors after having missed all this past week due to COVID protocol.

For the Nets, ‘Scary Hours’ should all be back on the court - for only the seventh time this season. So that will be fun to watch.

On the other side of the ball, Steph is always, always fun to watch. He’s unreal.

The Nets will play their next five on the road, out west, where four of those will be nationally televised. Pretty cool.

WHO: Brooklyn Nets (15-12) at Golden State Warriors (14-12)

WHEN: 8:30 PM EST

WHERE: ABC (national), WFAN (radio)

Game Preview.

Player to watch: Kevin Durant

Welcome back, KD. When we last saw Durant, the league was making a mockery out of their own protocols by forcing him to the bench against the Raptors and then removing him from the game after a Nets employee’s COVID test came back positive. He’s been out for the past week and will be back tonight. The league is getting on my nerves, which I discussed further here.

COVID aside, this is a momentous evening for KD. When he joined the Warriors in the summer of 2016, he took a historically great team and turned them into world-destroying juggernauts. His time there was very, very complicated and KD became a villain and the never-ending subject of debates about legacy, the ethics of super teams, and all other types of shit. Some writers even made it to the top of the New York Times best seller list off of him. All in all, his time there was historic and deserves to be appreciated by everyone. The Warriors will air a one-minute tribute this evening to honor what he did for the franchise. Then, next season, with fans in the stands, they’ll do it again, this time retiring No. 35 in an appropriate ceremony.

For more on the Warriors, check out Golden State of Mind.