The NBA’s play-in tournament is a survival-and-advance situation, and on Tuesday night the Brooklyn Nets outlasted the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-108, to advance to the playoffs as the East’s No. 7, earning them a first-place finish earned -round date with the No. 2 Boston Celtics.
Here are five takeaways from Brooklyn’s victory.
1. What can Brooklyn take away from this win?
Well, it turns out they’re a pretty impressive team when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant have a combined 59 points on 21-of-31 shots, including 4-of-7-of-3. Irving made his first 12 shots, which is a postseason record if the play-in was counted as a true playoff game, which is not the case. He ended the first half with this madness:
That’s the kind of thing Irving did all night. He didn’t heap buckets of simple looks. These were mostly hard shots that few players in the world make look easy like his teammate Durant.
Durant and Irving finished the first quarter with 19 points on 10-of-10 shooting to put Cleveland in the hole it couldn’t crawl out of. Durant had partial breaks in the second and third quarters, but he closed strong with two clutch jumps as Cleveland had reduced the lead to five. Durant was also tremendous defensively, blocking three shots and changing a handful of others.
2. What if Durant/Irving sit?
That was a problem on Tuesday. When Durant got his first break late in the first quarter, the Nets scored two, yes, two points in the first four minutes and 23 seconds of the second quarter before Durant came back.
By that point, Brooklyn’s momentum was gone, even though Kyrie was still in the game, and the next thing you knew, the Nets had just eight points in the first over nine minutes of the second quarter.
Irving and Durant both played 42 minutes Tuesday, and the Nets needed each of them. Steve Nash has no choice: He will have to play Durant and Irving monster minutes as long as this team lives. And even then, what does it say that Brooklyn, with its two stars playing huge minutes and pretty much perfect as a combo, had to go to the top to beat a Cleveland team that was playing without Jarrett Allen?
3. Brooklyn’s defense was encouraging
It wasn’t just Durant defending the rim; Nic Claxton was in there five blocks. Everyone was keen to rotate, recover and contest shots throughout the court. Even non-shot blockers made shots in the paint difficult. The Cavs are a limited team offensively, and they had success in transition and early offense, but when Brooklyn came back and sat down, they put up a relatively good defensive performance.
Of course, the Celtics pose much bigger problems with multiple big scorers and a stable of solid creators, not to mention Boston’s shifting defense that can throw multiple bodies at Durant and Irving.
Cleveland got a lot of close-range layups and dunks from over-the-top passes in the halfcourt when Brooklyn was oversized in the paint. If Andre Drummond is out or off, Al Horford and Daniel Theis will look to capitalize on similar properties. For the Nets, this is the prime time to catch the Celtics as Robert Williams is unlikely to play in the series or Boston would be even bigger.
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4. Nets Need More From Seth Curry
Curry was kept scoreless in 34 minutes. He only took four shots. He’s dealing with a bum ankle, but that’s really all there is to say. The nets obviously need more of him. Boston will anticipate Bruce Brown’s short rolls and color cuts, and Curry, waiting in the corner for secondary assist-3s, can be a massive weapon for Brooklyn. Don’t bet on curry staying cold. He’s one of the best shooters in the world.
5. Cavs get a second crack
Cleveland isn’t done yet. It’ll play the winner of Wednesday’s Atlanta/Charlotte play-in game, and whoever the Cavs get, they’ll get at home. Darius Garland and Evan Mobley were great against Brooklyn; Garland went for 34 points and Mobley was 9-for-13 from the field. Garland took it straight in Brooklyn, and the Cavs looked a lot better attacking early rather than late in the shot clock. When that happens, Garland is the only guy who can reliably pull off a decent look. It feels like the flame has burned out in this Cavs season that started out so fun and promising. The loss of Jarrett Allen and Ricky Rubio was killer. But Atlanta and Charlotte are obviously beatable. We’ll see what determination Cleveland can muster on Friday.