Durant Out Again Tonight

By Randy Renner

Thunder superstar Kevin Durant was not on the practice floor when reporters were allowed into the gym this morning for shootaround at the Integris Health Thunder Development Center and Durant will not play tonight against the Boston Celtics.

Earlier in the week there'd been some hope that KD might return to the lineup tonight but now Friday's game against Atlanta will be the earliest opportunity.

Last Wednesday Thunder head coach Scott Brooks told reporters he expected Durant to resume playing "in a week or two." It's been a week as of now and Durant has returned to at least portions of practice. Neither Brooks nor Durant was made available to speak with reporters this morning so it's not clear how much more has been added to Durant's practice workload.

The Thunder of course are also without forward Serge Ibaka who had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee yesterday in New York. Ibaka is expected to miss the rest of the regular season but if his recovery goes well he could be back in time for the first round of the playoffs, IF the Thunder can get into the playoffs.

This game against the Celtics looked like an easy win a few weeks ago but now Boston is playing its best ball of the season and as the Thunder defense continues to struggle the Celtics will not be an easy out.

They've won five straight games and four of those have been accomplished wihtout point guard Isaiah Thomas. Former Texas guard Avery Bradley has been leading the way along with former OSU All-American Marcus Smart. 

Tipoff is set for 7:10 tonight at The Peake, you can see the game on Fox Sports Oklahoma and follow along on our Twitter feed page for updates from the arena this afternoon and this evening.