Warriors links: Durant returns to practice, why Harden got his wrist slapped, and more

Welcome back to your extremely unpredictably scheduled installment of Links of a Warrior. As usual, I won’t run the auto-link feature on this, so anywhere you see a hotlink embedded in the text, it’s something I thought was worth a click.

After surviving thriving in the absence of Kevin Durant, it seems increasingly certain that he will be back on the court soon. So soon in fact, that he appears to be running in an actual 5 on 5 scrimmage today after participating in practice!

YAY!

Now THAT is something that makes Warriors fans extremely happy, but the Warriors want to temper the expectations a bit. As per this nice update article from CSN, coach Steve Kerr is preaching patience by stating, “We’re getting closer, but we’re not there yet. He’s doing well, but we have to keep it going and let it play out until he’s completely ready.” You can see Kerr’s full interview from practice today, here.

Durant, for his part, is clearly chomping at the bit to get back out there with the team.

While we are on the subject of Durant, I want to re-post the link to his recent appearance on the Bill Simmons Podcast and encourage you to listen to it if you haven’t yet. It’s a long one (an hour and a half!) but the wide-ranging and open conversation is extremely compelling. KD talks about crying when he thought his season was over, weighs in on the beef with Shaq, and even discusses the fallout with Westbrook and OKC.

In other news, can we talk about this interaction between Draymond Green and James Harden?

I hope that stung. I’ve never bought into the whole “that’s just part of the game” schtick. Act like a jerk, get treated like one.

Second act - here’s Harden getting rewarded for an egregious flop. Will the league ever issue this dude a flop warning? Or a fine? Probably not. I was talking to Nate Parham last night and he mentioned that Westbrook may get MVP votes just because his game is more watchable. I hope voters see these types of actions and penalize Harden for them. Oddly enough, Harden still managed to be disappointed with the refs.

Quick hits:

Shea Serrano, the Steph Curry threes you meet in heaven .

Sam Amick, inside the mind of Draymond Green.

This dude bet against the Warriors and lost. Never bet against the Dubs, folks.

Jusuf Nurkic is out with a leg fracture and will miss the rest of the regular season. This is another absolutely brutal blow for the Blazers, who have suffered through WAY more than their fair share of injuries. The Blazers have a two game lead, plus the tie-breaker, on the 9th seeded Denver Nuggets, so they are still the team we are most likely to face in the first round. Indications are that Nurkic will be available in time for the playoffs.

Finally, I did a little Q&A with JR Wilco from the Spurs blog. We talked about how fans deal with losses (or big wins), the potential meeting of Spurs and Warriors in the post season, and how worried their fans are after the huge comeback.

That’s it for this installment, but please be sure to keep those fan shots coming, and/or post them in the comments below.