Houston Rockets star forward Kevin Durant will miss his first game of the season when the Rockets travel to Phoenix to take on the Suns on Monday night.
Durant will miss two straight games – against Phoenix on Monday night and against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night – due to a family matter, the team announced. Ironically, both of those games come against Durant's former franchises. Durant should be back in action when the Rockets play the Jazz in Utah on Sunday afternoon.
Kevin Durant to miss Houston's next two games due to family matter
We don’t want to speculate on the reason for Durant’s absence. The hope is obviously that it’s nothing too serious. Some things are simply bigger than basketball.
To this point, Durant has appeared in all 14 games of the season for the Rockets and posted averages of 24.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.0 steals per performance. Houston currently sits 4th in the Western Conference standings with a record of 10-4.
Though he's only been a member of the Rockets for a few months, Durant has enjoyed embracing the role of veteran leader on a relatively young team.
“I’ve been on teams where you have young guys trying to establish themselves,” Durant said in an interview with Yahoo. “Which isn’t a bad thing, but sometimes that can get in the way on a team. [Here] you have young great players still figuring things out, so their approach to the game might change, and my approach to them might change. But these guys are humble, appreciative of being here and grateful to come in every day. It’s always fun coming into the locker room.”
Durant may be in the midst of his 18th season in the NBA, but he's still one of the most fun, and productive, players in the entire league. Hopefully he'll be back out on the court in short order.