Sports

Don’t blame the supporting cast when the Nets blew the series away


Kevin Durant (l.) and Kyrie Irving

Kevin Durant (l.) and Kyrie Irving
Photo: beautiful pictures

“If Kyrie and KD are averaging 30 and 35 points per game, that’s just 65 points. Where will the rest of the points come from? ”

I heard several versions of this happening a few times before the start of the Brooklyn Nets’ first series against the Boston Celtics. It seems like people really believe that if Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant played one of the best basketballs of their lives, the other seven to nine NBA players on the Nets’ roster wouldn’t be able to walk up the stairs. and put the ball in the rim.

In fact, the people playing the role of the Nets are what makes this series so competitive. Brooklyn lost 3-0 to the Celtics and will most likely lose this series on Monday or Wednesday. However, since Durant is having his worst playoff since his rookie year, 2010 – when the Oklahoma City Thunder lost to eventual NBA champion the Los Angeles Lakers in six games – it’s the player’s role has begun to decline for the Nets, while Durant and Irving have yet to get the job done late into the game.

Irving was spectacular in Game 1 against the Celtics. He attacks all hostility – no matter what he like to call it – in TD Garden and unstoppable for nearly the entire game, scoring 39 points on the 60/60/100 shooting division. However, with Durant scoring 23 points while shooting only 38% from the field as the Celtics cornered him in pressure all day, the Nets’ remaining 114 points must have come from somewhere.

The key contributors to this game are Goran Dragić and Nic Claxton. They add up for 27 points on a 63.1 percent spin. While Andre Drummond has started every game for this Nets series – and also played well in Game 1 – it was Claxton who controlled the paint for more than 30 minutes. He did damage there, with eight rebounds and three blocks along with his 13 points. Claxton has been a force in all series, and Steve Nash’s decision not to start him was one of the criticisms he received for his coaching in this first round.

Dragić is a grizzled veteran at point guard. The 35-year-old, one-time all-star has played most of his playoff ball with the Miami Heat. The Nets picked him up, after he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs, and bought out of his contract. In Game 1 against Boston, Dragić came off the bench as a steadying force for the Nets immediately, as well as another creator off of the dribble — something that some believed the Nets didn’t have on their roster after Durant and Irvng. Dragić gave them 26 necessary minutes in Game 1, and has been a dependable third ball-handling threat in each game — though he questionably only played eight minutes yesterday.

The Nets’ best player in this series has been Bruce Brown. The 25-year-old forward averaged 24.6 minutes per game this season. In this first-round series he has averaged 36 and a half minutes per game. His energy and defense was much needed by the Nets in Game 1, but in Game 2 and 3 he has outperformed what anyone could have reasonably expected from his nine points per game this season.

He has set personal playoff-career highs in consecutive games. As Irving’s performance crashed back to earth in Game 2 with 10 points on 30.8 percent shooting, and Durant having to live at the free throw line to score 27 points because he shot an unbelievably awful 23.5 percent from the field, Brown tallied 23 points, eight rebounds, and four assists on 66.7/75/100 shooting splits. Also, his defense helped hold both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum under 25 points, and Tatum to 19 points on 31.3 percent from the field. Dragić was again strong, even though he had no assists, with 18 points on 57.1 percent shooting and a gimpy Seth Curry gave the Nets four 3-pointers and 16 points.

Brown led the way again yesterday with his new playoff-career high 26 points. Not only did he lead the Nets in scoring, he led them in field-goal attempts with 19 and played 40 minutes while still shooting 52.6 percent from the field. Durant, one of the best scorers in NBA history, only managed 11 field-goal attempts in a must-win game.

It was a desperate effort by the Nets to pull out a win at home, with Patty Mills having his best game of the series making four out of five 3-pointers, Steve Nash even put in Blake Griffin for a few minutes in the fourth quarter. Griffin made consecutive threes and gave them stout defense. None of it mattered, in the fourth they couldn’t reduce the deficit under five points.

Even if the Nets get swept by the Celtics, as a team they should be proud. As poorly as Durant and Irving have played for most of this series — much credit to the Celtics defense for that — the players who were maligned going into this series have kept the Nets in all three games. Not bad for players who some talked about as if they wouldn’t be able to score a point in this series. 



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