While looking forward to the first-round playoff matchup in opposition to the Boston Celtics, Brown talked about how the absence of injured middle Robert Williams can be an element. This would register as probably the most benign bulletin board materials of all time, however when Durant walked into the room of reporters, he needed to defuse his teammate’s sound chew earlier than it might make it to the ears of the Celtics.
“Yo, what did Bruce Brown say?” Durant requested. “He said something I didn’t like. Somebody just told me.”
When a reporter relayed Brown’s phrases, Durant rolled his eyes and sucked his enamel the way in which an outdated timer would when these children out listed below are working his final nerve. Maybe Durant believed that strongly within the capabilities of the 2 different Boston massive males, Al Horford and Daniel Theis, and needed to indicate them respect. Or possibly he simply needed one night time with out his crew taking part in the lead character within the NBA season’s longest-running cleaning soap opera.
An evening with out drama? For the Nets — a crew of tremendous mates who determined to affix forces three years in the past and have chosen chaos each step of the way in which — that would appear like an eternity.
Kyrie Irving’s cussed refusal to get vaccinated in opposition to the coronavirus and to adjust to the New York City mandate compelled him to overlook the beginning of the season. Last month, the mayor created an exception for athletes and performers to work regardless of their vaccination standing, so Irving has solely just lately reacquainted himself with the house rims inside Barclays Center.
James Harden, who joined final season because the third celebrity, needed out by this 12 months’s commerce deadline. According to an ESPN report, nevertheless, Harden did himself no favors originally of the coaching camp when he confirmed up out of form.
And all-star level guard Ben Simmons, who came visiting within the Harden commerce, can pull off a inexperienced leather-based jacket-and-shorts combo on the sidelines however he nonetheless can’t swimsuit up for the sport. He hasn’t logged a minute all season.
However, after securing their playoff berth as arguably the scariest seventh seed in NBA historical past, the Nets needs to be mentioned purely in basketball phrases. They’ve proved that their highlights are extra exhilarating than their headlines.
Since there are not any extra metropolis mandates left to defy, we are able to now marvel at how Irving, on an empty abdomen whereas fasting for Ramadan, can play basketball with no blemish.
A supercut of his efficiency when Brooklyn clinched in opposition to the Cleveland Cavaliers would look a bit of like these exercise movies that litter NBA gamers’ Instagram feeds in the course of the summer time. Nobody misses a shot in these polished clips. The solely distinction with Irving’s highlights — he didn’t want the edit button. He took 12 photographs to begin the sport, he made 12 photographs. He delivered passes to the numbers on his teammates’ chests and he labored his crossover the way in which a DJ scratches a turntable and nonetheless stays on the beat.
“You never know why someone gets in the zone like that,” Coach Steve Nash mentioned of Irving, who completed with a team-high 34 factors and 12 assists.
And when a number of gamers occupy that zone, as Irving and Durant did Tuesday night time, they create the NBA’s worst math drawback. Sometimes, one celebrity plus one other will be higher than 5 gamers.
During video games, Durant and Irving have their little, secret handshake. It largely consists of them linking their index fingers they usually achieve this after buckets, after further passes, after any enjoyable second that occurs. So if the remainder of the playoffs resemble something just like the play-in recreation, they’ll be becoming a member of fingers loads.
Besides scoring 25 factors in opposition to the Cavs, Durant performed as “the PG from PG (County),” as Irving referred to as him, and likewise dropped 11 assists. And if that wasn’t sufficient, Durant determined so as to add rim protector to his duties and blocked three photographs. When he wanted to return to all-world scorer, Durant obliged with flattening consecutive jumpers that propelled the Nets’ lead again to double digits within the fourth quarter. Overall, Durant and Irving scored or assisted on 80 p.c of the crew’s factors.
“I don’t want to take it for granted when we have moments like this where we’re clicking on almost all cylinders,” Irving mentioned. “When you have most of the starters scoring over 15 and just the ball’s hopping, we’re executing very well and we’re trusting one another … When we get into those one-on-one matchups and me and K start shooting a bunch of attempts and we try to go and be special, those are going to be moments that are going to come. But when we’re able to do it efficiently when everybody’s touching the pumpkin or touching the ball the energy feels better.”
Those good vibes produced good basketball, then Brown spoke and he answered a query about slowing the Celtics down.
“Now they don’t have Robert Williams, so they have less of a presence in the paint and we can attack Al Horford and Theis,” Brown mentioned. “So them not having Robert Williams is huge.”
Someone made an enormous deal of this to Durant and although he leisurely strolled in for his flip in entrance of the microphone, he wasted no time in turning down the noise.
“I mean, we respect our opponent. We don’t need to talk about what we going to do to them,” Durant mentioned. “We don’t need to say s— like that. Let’s just go out there and hoop.”
A basketball crew maintaining its focus on simply basketball. Such a novel idea in Brooklyn.