Kevin Durant won't play Friday in Nets-Cavaliers game

The Brooklyn Nets suffered a double-overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night in the first game that Brooklyn had All-Stars Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the newly acquired James Harden in the lineup. 

Brooklyn will look to avenge that defeat without Durant. 

As Malika Andrews reported for ESPN, Durant will sit out Friday's contest to rest the right Achilles tendon that he ruptured during the 2019 NBA Finals. Durant missed the entire 2019-20 campaign and only made his Brooklyn debut against the Golden State Warriors, his former club, last month. 

The Nets quickly return home to host the Miami Heat on Saturday night. According to Andrews, Durant has played in both games of back-to-back contests only once this season. 

Per ESPN stats, Durant is second in the NBA in scoring with 31.3 points per game. The 32-year-old also leads the Nets among eligible players with 6.0 assists, 1.3 blocks, 7.5 rebounds and a 28.32 player efficiency rating. 

Durant played over 50 minutes in Wednesday's loss to Cleveland at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse but couldn't prevent Cavaliers guard Collin Sexton from catching fire and scoring 42 points to lead his team to a surprising victory.

Brooklyn is 9-7 overall, while the Cavs sit at 7-7.