OAKLAND, California: The Golden State Warriors will be without postseason scoring leader Kevin Durant as they try to close out the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals.
“Well, we’ll just find somebody on the bench who can give us 35 points and two blocks and 11 boards and nine assists,” coach Steve Kerr said once the team arrived back in Houston on Thursday evening.
An MRI exam Thursday confirmed the Warriors’ initial diagnosis of a strained right calf announced during Wednesday’s 104-99 win at Oracle Arena.
As the Warriors returned to Houston for Friday’s Game 6, Durant stayed behind in the Bay Area to undergo treatment. He is scheduled to be re-evaluated next week, meaning if there is a decisive Game 7 in the series Sunday he would be out of that one as well. The Warriors lead the series 3-2.
“He’s been the best player in the NBA, in the playoffs. He’s been phenomenal, so it’s obviously a huge loss, but our team has a lot of confidence,” Kerr said. “They trust each other. They’ve won championships together. So we come out and we give it our best shot, and we try to mix and match some lineups and find some minutes and some contributions where we haven’t had them so far in this series. Guys will get opportunities who haven’t had an opportunity yet. It’ll be a little different. But no reason why we can’t go get a win.”
Durant limped to the locker room after landing awkwardly on his right foot following a baseline jumper with 2:11 left in the third quarter Wednesday.
The Warriors initially feared the two-time reigning NBA Finals MVP might have injured his Achilles, a far more serious issue.
“It’s a tough injury,” teammate Klay Thompson said. “We’ll have to collectively make up for what he does. We’ve done it before. It’s going to be incredibly difficult. It’s the playoffs. I know they’re not going to feel sorry for us, the media, the fans. It will be a gut check time. We go down there and give it our best effort. That’s all we can do. If we do that, I have confidence every man on this team will step up in his absence. We wish him a speedy recovery because we’re not the same team without him.”
Durant, who leads all postseason scorers at 34.2 points per game, finished with 22 points, five rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes.
Golden State has been without injured stars like Durant, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green or Thompson in big games before. The Warriors coaching staff planned to use the flight to reconfigure rotations for Game 6 without Durant, and Kerr said, “I have a pretty good feeling for it, but I’m not about to share it with you or anybody else other than our team.”
“Any time you see something like that, it’s scary,” Curry said after the game. “You could see the look on his face. He didn’t really understand what was happening in that moment, trying to figure it out, went straight back to the locker room. During the timeout, we all looked at each other. There were a couple smiles in terms of what that meant for us as a team, the guys that were going to need to step up in those moments. Again, next-man-up mentality. Draymond said that at some point during that timeout.
“It’s hard to remove yourself from thinking about your teammate and your brother as he’s back in the locker room getting checked out. But we were able to lock back in and just find a way to win the game. Now we can regroup and understand whatever the situation is going forward.”
Kevon Looney will certainly play more minutes as he did Wednesday. The big man grabbed nine rebounds, five on the offensive glass, to provide a big boost off the bench.
“We’re still really positive,” Looney said. “Our team’s been battle-tested, we’ve had to play without key guys before so whatever happens, happens. We’re ready and we’re confident that we have enough to win.”
Warriors star Kevin Durant out for rest of West semifinals
Warriors star Kevin Durant out for rest of West semifinals
- Kevin Durant strained his calf during Game 5 of the Warriors-Rockets playoff series
- As the Warriors returned to Houston for Friday’s Game 6, Durant stayed behind in the Bay Area to undergo treatment
29 players advance to round 2 of LIV Golf Promotions
- Friday’s 18-hole shootout will determine the weekend field that compete for 3 spots in the 2026 LIV Golf League
LECANTO, FLORIDA: The key to advancing beyond Thursday’s opening round of LIV Golf Promotions was simple: break par.
All 29 players who shot better than even-par 70 at Black Diamond Ranch moved on to Friday’s second round, to be joined by 18 exempt players in another 18-hole shootout to determine the weekend field that will compete for three spots in the 2026 LIV Golf League.
Canada’s Richard T. Lee led the first-round field of 60 players with a bogey-free six-under 64, two shots better than his nearest competitors, thanks to a stretch of four birdies in his final six holes.
“It’s the first round, and finishing first is always a great feeling,” said the 35-year-old Lee. “But the scores are going to reset tomorrow for the second round, and hopefully I can put up another good score out there.”
Of the 47 players competing on Friday, the top 20 and ties will advance to the two-day weekend shootout. The top three players after those 36 final holes will earn wild-card spots for the upcoming LIV Golf season.
At last season’s LIV Golf Promotions tournament, Lee was exempt into the second round, then advanced into the weekend. If he earns one of the three spots, he would be the league’s first Canadian player.
“Definitely for everyone out there that’s striving to get the three cards, I think it’s going to be a life-changer to be out there on LIV Golf and performing at the highest level,” Lee said.
Among those advancing comfortably behind Lee with four-under 64s were youngsters Max Kennedy of Ireland and Pablo Ereno of Spain, Korea’s Hongtaek Kim, and Thailand’s Suteepat Prateeptienchai and Sadom Kaewkanjana.
Ereno turned pro last June and is the youngest player in the field, at 22. He is hoping to follow the same path as current LIV Golf players Josele Ballester, David Puig and Luis Masaveu, the three young Spaniards who will be teammates on Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC team this season.
“I’m super close, especially with Josele and Luis Masaveu,” said Ereno, who played collegiately at UCLA. “I’ve only heard good things about it, so that’s why I’m here trying to earn my spot for next year. They’re really happy playing on LIV, and I think I would be, too, in case I play great this week.”
Kennedy was still an amateur in 2023 when he participated in the inaugural LIV Golf Promotions tournament and advanced from the first round.
“Definitely a lot more comfortable,” Kennedy said. “Back then, it was kind of new to me, so I was a little bit more nervous, didn’t know what to expect. Going out there tomorrow, I’ll know how to feel. I know what I’m going to feel.”
Prateeptienchai is one of two players at Black Diamond Ranch who previously advanced to the final 36-hole shootout in each of the previous two Promotions tournaments.
The other, Kieran Vincent, earned a LIV Golf spot in 2023, and Prateeptienchai is hoping for a similar result this week. He previously finished T11 in 2023 and T8 last season.
Provided he advances again after Friday’s second round, he hopes not having to play 36 holes in a single final day, as in the previous Promotions tournaments, will be a positive.
This year, the final two rounds consist of 18 holes on Saturday and 18 more on Sunday. “Just really tired because it’s playing 36 holes in a day,” Prateeptienchai said. “This year, it’s 18 and 18. More happy.”
Kaewkanjana is one of 12 players this week with previous LIV Golf experience. He played in all eight tournaments during the inaugural 2022 season and has been working hard to earn another chance.
“I try to get into LIV Golf this year,” he said, “so that it gets me a great experience to play with the greatest players in the world.”
Eleven players made the top-20-and-ties cut on the number at one-under 69, including Australia’s Cory Crawford, who birdied the difficult par-four 18th to secure his spot.
England’s Joe Pagdin, playing in the final group that started off the 10th tee, bogeyed his next-to-last hole but bounced back with a birdie at the par-five ninth to also advance.
