Kevin Durant Coming Back To Try And Save Free-falling Nets

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The Nets went from Kevin to hell, but their savior has returned.

Kevin Durant, at long last, will be suiting up again for a wildly different team than he last played with. But for the Nets, all that matters right now is Kevin Durant is back.

After nearly seven weeks of watching what had been a second-place team charge as fast as it could down the standings, the superstar was not listed on the injury report and will be on the court Thursday.

“The return,” the Nets’ team account wrote on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon, alongside a mash-up of Durant images, a day before a Barclays Center game against the Heat.

Miami sits where the Nets had sat — atop the Eastern Conference — for the first few months of the season. After a game in which Bruce Brown was pushed into Durant’s left leg on Jan. 15, the Nets were 27-15 and behind only the Bulls.

A disastrous 5-16 stretch followed while Durant recovered from his sprained MCL — and while Kyrie Irving was only a part-time player, James Harden was forcing his way out from the free fall and Ben Simmons was acquired but still has not seen the court. The Nets will reference the dreaded “ramp-up,” but Durant might have to throw the ramp out for Brooklyn’s title hopes to return.

The Nets are eighth in the conference and closer to missing both the playoffs and play-in altogether (three games ahead of Washington) than they are to leaping their way into the top six (4.5 games back of Boston).

Durant had been averaging 36.5 minutes — his most since the 2013-14 season — prior to the injury. The Nets, who were off Wednesday, have been careful with their franchise player, who has been on the practice court for three-plus weeks in ensuring his left leg would be built up before he returns to action.

Over the next week, the Nets, who already have one part-time star, will need plenty of Durant against the conference-best Heat, the Celtics (sixth in the East), Hornets (ninth) and Harden’s 76ers (third).

And he will need to adapt to his new co-workers on the fly. After Durant went down against the Pelicans, Harden took over and lifted the Nets to a victory. All of the drama that ensued next brought Simmons (who is out indefinitely while conditioning and suffering through back soreness), Andre Drummond (probable against the Heat with left ankle soreness), Seth Curry and Goran Dragic.

The newcomers who have played have helped — but not enough. The KD-less Nets dropped 11 straight and went from competing for first to aspiring for the top six to desperately clinging to a play-in spot.

“We all know who we have coming back, and we all know what we need to do to help,” James Johnson, one of the many who was relied upon too much without the Nets’ stars, said Tuesday. “… We see how hard it is to do what KD and Kyrie do every night.”

It might be too late for the Nets to avert the play-in. After dropping back-to-back contests against Toronto, the Nets (32-31), who entered the season as perhaps the most talented team ever, are barely above .500.

If the season ended today, they would face those same Raptors in Toronto — without Irving, barring a vaccination that he has refused — in the 7-8 play-in game. If they lost, they would see the winner of the 9-10 game (Hornets-Hawks) and would be a defeat away from an unfathomable result of not qualifying for the postseason.

There are 19 regular-season games left, and as the current New York City rules stand, Irving is only eligible for seven. There are clouds around Simmons’ timeline, and ESPN reported Wednesday the thrilling if polarizing talent might not return this month. There is still little clarity concerning Joe Harris, who could need a second ankle surgery that would likely knock him out for the season.

Everywhere the Nets look, there are questions. After 21 games and 47 long days, the biggest one — not whether Irving can be cleared for home games, not when Simmons can debut — has been answered.

Durant will be dressing with his teammates again, and the uniform should include a cape.