KD & Russ Still Not Ruled Out For Friday

By Randy Renner

Thunder head coach Scott Brooks told reporters neither Kevin Durant nor Russell Westbrook would play in Wednesday's game against Utah but he didn't go quite that far when it came to Friday's game with New York.

"They will be re-evaluated later in the week and we will be able to make that decision (playing on Friday) from there, but until then we're just focused on the guys we know are playing (against Utah).

Brooks said both players' medical re-evaluations are still on the original schedule which is believed to be Durant on Thursday and Westbrook on Saturday. IF that is the case it would seem extremely unlikely Westbrook would play Friday against the Knicks before being fully re-evaluated by the medical staff.

But the Thunder keeps the details of these sorts of things pretty close to the vest and Brooks wouldn't venture very far down that road however, "I will say this, Kevin and Russell have been participating in some of practice and they look good and they are continuing to progress in the direction we need them too," Brooks said.

Then he got to the bottom line.

"Whenever they get cleared and feel like they can compete in an NBA game, they will play. It's obviously in the near future but it won't be tomorrow."

And like I wrote this morning, it probably won't be Friday either. After practice Westbrook again had his right hand inside a sleeve receiving some sort of treatment.

Both Durant and Westbrook said early in this process that they wouldn't rush back too soon but you figure they're getting a bit antsy given the Thunder's 3-12 record and just the mere fact they haven't been able to play ball in several weeks.

Another guy who's getting closer and closer to getting back to playing status is rookie forward Mitch McGary. When reporters walked into the practice gym McGary was banging around with the other bigs working non post-up moves and drives to the basket. He finished several with dunks and was moving around really good.

"He's progressing well also," Brooks admitted. "He participated in some of practice but it's the same thing with him, don't know exactly when he will be back but sometime in the near future and we will re-evaluate him later in the week."

Sounds like the Thunder medical staff will have a very busy Thanksgiving and with any luck, Thunder fans will have a few more things to be thankful for.