Nets hold on to beat Heat, but Kevin Durant leaves with knee injury

Kyrie Irving called it one of the scariest plays in basketball, a sequence that turned dreams into nightmares during the Nets’ improbable 102-101 win over the Miami Heat on Sunday.

Heat star Jimmy Butler went up for a layup in the final minute of the third quarter, and after Ben Simmons blocked him at the rim, Butler landed and barreled directly into Kevin Durant’s right knee.

It was the second time Durant hurt the same knee on the night after colliding with Heat guard Kyle Lowry earlier in the game. The first time, Durant grabbed at his knee then played through the pain. The second time, he did the same thing, playing two more possessions before asking out of the game. Durant hunched over next to the scorer’s table before walking directly to the locker room.

The Nets later ruled him out the remainder of the game with an unspecified right knee injury. He will undergo an MRI on Monday and his status for Thursday’s matchup against the Boston Celtics is uncertain — if not unlikely.

There’s a lot to celebrate after the Nets held on to defeat Butler, Bam Adebayo and the Heat on Sunday. The Nets have won 18 out of 20 games for the first time in franchise history. They won without Durant on a game-winning tip-in from Royce O’Neale. They proved they have the depth it takes to compete with the Eastern Conference’s elite. Jacque Vaughn went toe-to-toe with heralded Heat coach Erik Spoelstra — and came out on top.

If Durant is out an extended period of time, however, due to his knee injury, those may very well all be footnotes. Last season, Durant suffered a similar injury when Bruce Brown crashed into his left knee in a freak incident almost a year ago today in a Jan. 15 matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans. Like that game, the Nets held on to win.

What happened after that game, however, would send a promising start to the season crashing down. After Durant sustained a Grade 2 MCL sprain last season, he missed a month and a half of action and the Nets went on an 11-game losing streak that sent them from first in the East to 10th in the conference.

“I think it’s hard to foreshadow exactly what’s gonna happen,” sharpshooter Joe Harris said postgame. “We don’t even know the severity of the injury. Maybe he’s gonna be out. So it’s a lot of hypotheticals, but what we do know is we have a lot of depth, so that’s a positive for us.”

Every team has a worst-case scenario. In the blink of an eye, the Nets are staring worst-case in the face.

For all the strides the Nets have taken, the years-long reality continues to ring true in Brooklyn: without Durant, the Nets are a tier lower of basketball team. A team that has proven it belongs with the East’s elite after catching fire in the month of December now faces 21 potential playoff opponents in their next 23 games.

And it’s unclear if Durant will be back in time for any of them.

“With (Kevin), we know what we’re up against with him not being in the lineup,” Irving said postgame. “We can say it every single day, but we don’t have time for any excuses. We just gotta keep moving forward and stay mature about it.”

Irving, Durant’s closest friend in the roster, said Durant was in good spirits after watching the fourth quarter from the locker room.

“The strength of our team is us picking each other up and just being ready for whatever’s thrown at us,” he said.

But obviously, if Durant misses an extended period of time, everything must change for the Nets to continue winning games against quality opponents. For starters, Durant’s first basket of the night moved him past Dominique Wilkins for 14th place on the NBA’s all-time leading scorer’s list. Durant averages the most efficient 30 points per game in NBA history. No one player — let alone a player on Brooklyn’s roster — can fill his shoes.

“I just think obviously our strategy is pretty clear that me and (Kevin) are leading predominantly most of the offense and we have incredible shooters, incredible talented basketball players around us, and now I think it shapes into all-around offense and guys being ready to play and make an impact out there,” said Irving, who finished with 29 points on the night. “I think one of the greatest qualities of our team is our bench and the way we support each other despite who’s in the lineup, and now it’s time to go out and exemplify that until we figure out the timeline of K and when he can be available again, so just gotta be mature about it.”

That means it’s going to come down to coaching. It’s going to come down to effort. It’s going to come down to players like TJ Warren, Yuta Watanabe and Joe Harris, who each project to see their minutes spike if Durant must miss an extended period of time. More of a scoring load will be placed on Irving’s shoulders. Simmons will have to be more aggressive looking for his shot, and Seth Curry — who scored 14 points off the bench against the Heat — will have to play more minutes because he’s the next-most capable playmaker after Irving and Simmons in a world where Durant is not available.

The Nets have a lot going for them. They have found ways to win when winning appeared unlikely. With Durant sidelined, winning could be unlikely for some time with the number of quality opponents on the docket in the coming weeks.

Irving, however, was grateful the injury wasn’t worse.

“I was right there. Those plays are scary because when someone’s not looking at what’s going on, anything can happen in those moments,” he said. “So I’m grateful that all that time he’s out in the weight room, putting his body in a great position, his body was able to save him from something worse.”