Eight is enough! Durant, undermanned Nets win in overtime

A COVID-19 outbreak that KO’d James Harden and six other players left the Nets with the NBA’s minimum of eight available players - four of them rookies - for Tuesday night’s game against the Raptors at Barclays Center.

But the Nets still had Kevin Durant and he was brilliant as ever in an improbable 131-129 overtime victory.

Durant, playing at times with the four rookies and playing on a sore ankle that made him a game-time decision to suit up, had a triple-double (34 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists) in a game-high 48:11.

Patty Mills (season-high 30 points) sent the game to overtime with a three-pointer with 13.1 seconds left. The key free throws to ice the game in overtime were hit by Mills and David Duke Jr.

"KD led us," coach Steve Nash said. "Patty led us. [Blake Griffin] led us and those young guys picked up the slack and were outstanding. Most importantly, they didn’t fold."

Six Nets, including Harden, were placed in the NBA’s COVID protocols on Tuesday, bringing the team’s total to seven.

Paul Millsap was placed on the list on Monday. On Tuesday, he was joined by LaMarcus Aldridge, James Johnson, DeAndre’ Bembry and Jevon Carter – all of whom were placed on the list early in the day – plus Harden and Bruce Brown. The last two were added less than an hour before the scheduled tipoff.

Also early Tuesday, the Nets announced that Durant was questionable for the game because of right ankle soreness. It wasn’t until nearly 7 p.m. that the team announced that Durant, who scored 51 points on Sunday, was going to play.

If he hadn’t played, the game would have been postponed. Durant said he knew in the morning that he was going to play, but Nash and the Nets were more cautious.

"We had to debate Kevin’s situation," Nash said. "Obviously, we’re talking about a franchise player. We don’t want to risk it. So we were probably more cautious than he is. But he really wanted to play and so that was it."

Said Durant: "I wasn't expecting James and Bruce to be out until I got to the game, which was surprising. But that made me even more excited to play this game with the young dudes."

The Nets (20-8), who trailed by nine going into the fourth quarter, used an 18-4 run to take a 117-111 lead with 4:42 left. The Raptors followed with a 9-0 run and took a 120-117 lead on a Gary Trent Jr. three-pointer with 1:21 to go.

Fred VanVleet led Toronto (13-15) with 31 points.

The Nets started Durant, Mills, Duke, Blake Griffin and Nic Claxton. It was the first start for Duke (10 points, 13 rebounds) in his third career game. The bench was Cam Thomas, Kessler Edwards (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Day’Ron Sharpe. Edwards and Sharpe were called up from the G League Long Island Nets on Monday. Claxton had 16 points and seven rebounds.

The Nets tied a season high in any half by scoring 66 in the first half to go into the locker room with a 10-point lead. Only 15 of those points were by Durant.

But the Raptors outscored the Nets 44-25 in the third quarter to go into the fourth with a 100-91 advantage.

All the Nets players in the COVID protocol are vaccinated. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be allowed to play in Brooklyn under New York City rules (like with Kyrie Irving).

According to NBA rules, vaccinated players are placed in COVID protocols when they test positive or have an inconclusive result. The players must quarantine for 10 days or until they have two negative tests within 24 hours.

Nash said there "were a couple of coaches and a couple of staff affected as well" by the outbreak.

The NBA on Monday postponed two Chicago Bulls games, the first postponements this season because of COVID, due to an outbreak among players and staff. The Nets hosted the Bulls on Dec. 4.

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.