After a week of spending time on the sidelines due to COVID-19 protocols from February 5th to February 14th, he played in one game on the Brooklyn Nets 5-game West Coast swing. He came back for Saturday night’s premier matchup against the Golden State Warriors, his first game in the Chase Center as a member of the Brooklyn Nets.
But following the win, it was announced Kevin Durant would miss Monday’s game against the Sacramento Kings and Tuesday’s game against the Phoenix Suns.
He is going to miss Thursday against the Los Angeles Lakers, which will be his third consecutive game missed.
I had watched the game against the Golden State Warriors and by many observers and reporters, no one was able to determine when Durant might have strained his hamstring. But he is currently missing time for a left hamstring strain, that has been listed as “mild.”
The hamstring group is consisted of 3 primary muscles: The Biceps Femoris, which has two heads the long and short head. The Biceps Femoris makes up the lateral portion of the posterior thigh. The Semimembranosus and the Semitendinosus make up the medial portion of the posterior thigh.
Collectively, the group of hamstrings allow for flexion of the knee and extension of the hip. The Biceps Femoris can externally rotate the leg when the knee is partially flexed; while the Semitendinosus and Semimembranosus can internally rotate the leg when the knee is partially flexed.
A unique feature about the Biceps Femoris and Semitendinonsus is that they share the same proximal attachment site, ischial tuberosity. The common attachment site allows the tendons to blend forming a conjoint tendon.
Damage at the ischial tuberosity site would also be known as a “high hamstring” injury. It is not known the location of the injury or where his greatest discomfort is. You also have to rule out the possibility of an avulsion fracture at the site of the ischial tuberosity.
Being listed as a “mild” strain indicates it is on the level of a Grade I muscle strain.
Grade I muscle strains have often been given the timeframe of a 1-3 weeks, but there are many factors that play in a role in that time frame. Location, Location, Location! being an important one. Often pain with stretching, soreness first thing in the morning, “tightness” and increasing tightness as the muscle is stretched through range of motion.
The biggest challenge with soft tissue injuries is this injury can linger throughout the entire season because of the function of the hamstring muscles and stresses placed on the body in the sport of basketball. The hamstring is an important stabilizing muscle when moving forward and side to side and primary muscle when going backwards.
While it is expected for Durant to miss several more games, the Brooklyn Nets will take a conservative approach in returning Durant to the court, making sure that soreness and stiffening up does not occur the following day after an extensive training or rehabilitation session. When Durant does return, he may return on a minutes restriction for the first several games back and not playing on back-to-back nights.