Will Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant play tonight vs. Lakers?

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant will become a free agent in 2016. (Photo by Ann Heisenfelt — The Associated Press)

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant will become a free agent in 2016. (Photo by Ann Heisenfelt — The Associated Press)

Lakers coach Byron Scott said he loves Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant as a person, raving about his leadership, humble demeanor and eagerness to learn. Scott loves Durant as a player, predicting he will eventually score 30,000 career points and calling his 30-minute performance in 18 minutes of the Thunder’s win over Golden State on Thursday “MVPish.”

But Scott believes Durant should take his time recovering from a right ankle sprain that kept him sidelined for the second half against the Warriors. The reasons have nothing to do with Durant’s long-term health and everything to do with the Lakers (8-17) hosting the Thunder (12-13) on Friday at Staples Center.

“I felt bad for him,” Scott said. “But I’m hoping it swelled up on him just a tad last night and he can’t go tonight and he’ll be well by Sunday.”

The Thunder has listed Durant as day-to-day after x-rays in his right ankle turned out negative. Durant missed the first 17 games with after having surgery to treat a fracture on his right foot. But the Thunder have gone 7-1 both since Durant and former UCLA guard Russell Westbrook have returned to the lineup. Westbrook missed nearly a month because of a broken right hand.

“They’re both competitive. Russell’s competitive nature comes out a lot more. Kevin is just as competitive as anybody in this league. I think they’ve made it work,” Scott said. “Both have given a little bit of themselves. You have to if you want to be successful and want to win and you have two guys like that. Somebody has to be, both guys have to get to a point where it can’t be about me. It’s all about the team. They got to sacrifice a little bit of themselves. Both guys have done that. At times you have seen the Russell that he’s such an explosive basketball player and emotional basketball player, that sometimes I think the emotions gets the best of him at times. But I’ve told people all the time I would love to have a player like that that you try to calm down instead of pick up for every single game. He’s a guy in a game that you know will bring it every game.”

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter and on Facebook. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com