The official word is that James Harden remains day-to-day after hitting the floor with a concussion after being struck by the elbow of Metta World Peace, or Ron Artest, of the Lakers on Sunday night. World Peace was suspended seven games for his blow, which he said was inadvertent, and apologized after the game (on Twitter, no less). Now Kevin Durant says his teammate "looks good" and everyone is ready to have him back.
"Yeah I am," Durant said when asked if he’s confident that Harden will be back for the NBA playoffs. "I saw him today and he looked good today. So we’ll see."
Head coach Scott Brooks said the focus had to remain on moving forward as a team and hoping to get Harden back sooner than later rather than the punishment doled out by David Stern on World Peace.
"That’s a league issue," Brooks said after the game. "We’re just focused on James comes back healthy and our team finishes out the season strong. The league, that’s their issue and I don’t really have much to say about it."
However, Kendrick Perkins had some words for the Lakers forward after watching the incident again on video.
"During the game, I didn’t really get a chance to see the play until I got home," he said. "And it was just uncalled for. I don’t really have any sympathy for a guy that does something like that. You could have really hurt James in a serious way. Any time you do an intentional blow like that, it’s just uncalled for. So I am anxious to see what happens."