Kevin Durant says Brooklyn Nets' season was derailed by his knee injury in mid-January

NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant believes his team's season got «derailed» when he injured the MCL in his left knee in mid January.

«To be honest, I feel like our season was derailed by my injury,» Durant said after Monday's practice. «So I'm not looking at it like we're just not a good basketball team. It's like there wasn't a lot of continuity with me and Kyrie out of the lineup, that's just what it is. When we're all on the floor together I like what we got.»

Durant injured the MCL in his left knee during a Jan. 15 win over the New Orleans Pelicans and had to miss over a month and a half while rehabbing the injury. During that month and a half, the Nets, who were 27-15 at the time and still playing with Kyrie Irving on a part-time basis because of the New York City vaccination mandate, went on an 11-game losing streak and were 5-17 in Durant's absence.

In the midst of that absence, the Nets also traded James Harden and Paul Millsap to the Philadelphia 76ers just before the trade deadline in February in exchange for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two future first-round picks. Even after getting Durant back on March 3 and getting Irving back fulltime on March 27 after New York City mayor Eric Adams pulled back the city's vaccination requirement for professional athletes and performers, the Nets have struggled to find a consistent rhythm.

Despite that, both Durant and Nets coach Steve Nash remain optimistic that the group still holds the belief that it can play its best basketball in the near future.

«I mean who knows if we do it or we don't but we have the belief and we'll give it a shot,» Nash said. «I don't know that many teams other than maybe ours last year have been in this position before