{"id":21640,"date":"2019-06-06T16:42:04","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T20:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=21640"},"modified":"2019-06-06T16:43:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T20:43:40","slug":"kevin-durant-out-game-4-nba-finals-per-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2019\/06\/06\/kevin-durant-out-game-4-nba-finals-per-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant Out Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Per Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following their Game 3 123-109 loss to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/toronto-raptors\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Toronto Raptors<\/a> on their home court, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/golden-state-warriors\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golden State Warriors<\/a> get additional deflating news. According to a report by Shams Charania of The Athletic, perennial All-NBA star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Kevin<\/strong> <strong>Durant<\/strong><\/a> will not play in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. With the series leaning in the favor of Toronto, the Warriors are once again dealing with the effects of injuries.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>Kevin Durant Out Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Per Report<\/strong><\/h1>\n<h2><strong>Kevin Durant Out for Game 4\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Kevin Durant has been ruled out due to the calf injury sustained against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/houston-rockets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Houston Rockets<\/a> early in May. Charania <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/timkawakami\/status\/1136493352306659328\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared this tweet on his Twitter account<\/a> Thursday afternoon:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Kevin Durant (calf) has been ruled out of Game 4 of NBA Finals.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1136717656852054016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 6, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This comes as bad news as the Golden State Warriors could definitely benefit from the star forward&#8217;s elite play. Given this most recent update, a Game 5 return for Kevin Durant becomes the next best outcome.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to his calf injury, Kevin Durant was averaging an unbelievable 34.2 points per game. A playoff career-high; outperforming his 2012-13 playoff run with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/oklahoma-city-thunder\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> where Durant averaged 30.8 points per game.<\/p>\n<p>To expect Durant to return to his exact form would be incredibly high expectations. Needless to say, the Golden State Warriors need Kevin Durant back in the lineup as another weapon to alleviate the offensive duties of\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/curryst01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Curry<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greendr01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Draymond Green<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>However, with Kevin Durant out, the Golden State Warriors must consider planning for the possibility that Durant may not return.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Klay Thompson Back for Game 5<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While it is not all bleak for Warriors&#8217; fans, star shooting guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompkl01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Klay Thompson<\/strong><\/a> appears to be set to play in Game 4. Klay Thompson suffered a hamstring injury in Golden State&#8217;s Game 2 victory over the Toronto Raptors.<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/timkawakami\/status\/1136493352306659328\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tweet by\u00a0Tim Kawakami<\/a>, Warriors&#8217; Head Coach\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kerrst01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steve Kerr<\/a> was confident in Klay Thompson&#8217;s return to Golden State&#8217;s lineup for Game 5. Tim Kawakami of The Athletic reported the following:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Steve Kerr just told me that he expects Klay Thompson to play in Game 4 on Friday. Kerr said he doesn\u2019t know yet about Kevin Durant\u2019s status for that game.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/timkawakami\/status\/1136493352306659328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 6, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Prior to sustaining his hamstring injury in Game 2, Thompson torched the Raptors on offense. Klay Thompson put on a 25 PTS (10\/17 FG, 4\/6 3PT) shooting clinic through 32 minutes of action before going into the locker room and not returning.<\/p>\n<p>Golden State needs Klay Thompson&#8217;s elite perimeter shooting and defense as they look to tie the series in Game 4.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to a report by Shams Charania of The Athletic, perennial All-NBA star Kevin Durant will not play in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":14489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1608,62,3],"tags":[409,182,69,70,48,528],"class_list":["post-21640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-warriors","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-draymond-green","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-kevin-durant","tag-klay-thompson","tag-stephen-curry","tag-steve-kerr"],"modified_by":"Barkev Sivazlian","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}