Jalen Rose says he watched Kevin Durant’s work out yesterday and thinks there’s no way he’s coming back this year. #NBAFinals pic.twitter.com/JcL5dFVQxR
— Pros and Joes (@ProsAndJoesPod) June 8, 2019
The Warriors are in trouble as they prepare to head to Toronto for Game 5, down 3-1 after Friday’s 105-92 loss to the Raptors at Oracle. They might get worse if Jalen Rose’s pregame report is accurate.
Rose said that he’s hearing Kevin Durant’s workout before Game 4 did not go well, and that he thinks the two-time Finals MVP may not return this series.
“I’m really familiar with the setup, workout that KD had yesterday with the team,” Rose said, “and I’m going to tell you guys, it didn’t go well on any level. It did not go well on any level. I’m just going to keep it at that.
“I went from being a guy that thinks that he may come back later in the series. Now I feel like he might not come back at all.”
The Warriors won six consecutive games after Durant went down with a calf injury during the third quarter of Game 5 vs. the Rockets, but haven’t been able to overcome his absence vs. the Raptors. Now Golden State’s only hope of winning the series is to become just the second team to ever overcome a 3-1 Finals deficit. The Cavaliers famously did that to the Warriors in 2016, but needed three consecutive all-world performances from LeBron James to eek out the series in seven games.
With Durant in the fold the task seems doable. Without him, it’s hard to imagine the Warriors we saw in Games 3 and 4 running off three consecutive wins.