Durant expected to return for Nets on Thursday against Heat

By BRIAN MAHONEY
AP Basketball Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Durant is expected to return from a left knee injury that has sidelined him since mid-January when the Brooklyn Nets host the Miami Heat on Thursday night. Durant wasn’t listed on the injury report Wednesday by the Nets, who tweeted a picture of Durant with a caption “The return.” It’s a desperately needed one for the Nets, who have fallen apart without their superstar forward and tumbled all the way to eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn is 5-16 since Durant sprained his left medial collateral ligament on Jan. 15. The Nets were 27-15 at the time, second in the East.