Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka will not play Tuesday night against the Detroit Pistons, Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan announced roughly 90 minutes before tipoff.

The Thunder played in Toronto on Monday and with their place virtually sealed up as the West's 3-seed, Donovan said it was a collective team decision to rest two of his five starters.

"It's a collaborative effort between the medical staff, myself and the players," he said. "With the back-to-back, we really felt like it was an opportunity to do that for Serge and Kevin. Obviously the amount of information that gets handed down from the amount of minutes, games, loads, all the things we're tracking during the course of the season. And checking with the player, seeing where the player's at. Obviously the player wanting to be on board with it and having a plan in place to be able at different points in time during the season rest somebody."

Durant said last week he wasn't interested in resting any during the regular season, saying, "I got my rest last season and earlier this year. I'm good."

But Donovan stressed it was a mutual decision with the players to make the call to sit Durant and Ibaka.

"It's not something we're dictating," Donovan said. "They're part of these conversations. We want to know how they're feeling, what they think, where they're at in terms of number of games played. Being able to get them some rest, making sure they're fresh. All those things go into the decision, with them being a part of it. In order for any of it to work Kevin and Serge have to be on board and say yeah this is what I want to do, yeah tonight's a good night to do that."

The Thunder are riding a league-best eight-game winning streak. However, sitting 10 games back of the Spurs and five and a half ahead of the Clippers with eight games to play, the Thunder are effectively locked into the third seed. The Pistons, though, are fighting for playoff positioning, holding a two and a half game lead for eighth over the Wizards.

This is Durant's eighth missed game of the season as he sat six in November with a strained hamstring and one in December with a sprained toe. The Thunder are just 3-4 in games this season without Durant. Ibaka has now missed two, resting earlier in the month against the Pacers.

Russell Westbrook will play, though, bringing his 16 triple-doubles into a showdown against former teammate Reggie Jackson. As for a plan to rest Westbrook, Donovan says that's "on the table," but not determined as of yet.

"You have to look at each player individually," Donovan said. "And I get it, if Kevin and Serge are sitting, why not just sit Russell? I get that question or that theory. But what we've got to do is take each individual player as an individual, how many minutes they've logged, practices, those kind of things and evaluate that. And also see where the player's at physically themselves.

"In talking to Russell he feels good," Donovan said. "That's not to say another back-to-back comes down the road or another game comes down the road, that we would not be open-minded to resting him. We are open-minded. We want Russell to be part of those conversations. He's ultimately got to let us know how he's feeling and where he's at but that's something no question that's on the table down the road."

Starting in place of Durant and Ibaka will be Dion Waiters and Kyle Singler.

Source:
courtesy of ESPN

by Royce Young

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