BROOKLYN — The murmur rose from a whisper to a muffled roar as the obvious became reality, the chants at the Barclays Center turned to mockery.
“Let’s play Celtics.”
Forty-eight minutes remain between the Brooklyn Nets and another premature end to the anticipated championship season after a borderline soulless performance against the Boston Celtics.
The coming together of two championship players in their prime should lead to something dynastic. Instead, the team under the most pressure in arguably modern NBA history sat on a whoopee cushion and laid an egg.
The Celtics sniffed blood after expecting to pull off the best shot of the Nets, then settled in comfortably to pick up an away win on a night when their best players were wishing each other a good night.
The Nets’ best players wandered aimlessly in the wilderness, thinking and pondering, feeling like somehow the basketball gods and karma were working against them. Kevin Durant made fewer shots than Bruce Brown, a solid player but no one feared at Celtics Green. In fact, it was probably in Ime Udoka’s master plan to mistake Durant for what he saw and turn him into a stationary target instead of the sniper he’s been for the past decade or so.
“I probably should have taken more shots,” admitted Durant. “But I tried to play the game properly without being too aggressive. To be honest, I’m just overthinking this whole series.”
This wasn’t punishment from outside forces, it wasn’t Durant’s foot barely touching suit in a Game 7 against an eventual champion. The only similarity between the last playoff and this one was that the opponent was empowered by real failure and a real respect for the 82-game process.
It’s borderline amazing how Durant could operate with full functionality and embrace everything in Golden State’s championship culture, but bring none of it – or didn’t know how to nurture such an environment.
The story goes on
The Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are close to elimination in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. (Al Bello/Getty Images).
He couldn’t help it, he didn’t have the system or the support from the bank. If there’s one trait in an NBA player that felt like a safe bet, it’s Durant as a goalscorer who makes it easy and better than maybe anyone we’ve ever seen.
It is not a system and does not belong to any. The beauty of Durant is that he can operate anywhere, anytime and be himself. But one of the safer playoff players of all time doesn’t live up to that, and it doesn’t seem likely that a miraculous shift in strategy will give the Nets some experience they lack to help him out.
His co-star has been completely unreliable for one reason or another, and it’s hard to imagine this being a championship outfit when the evidence is in front of us. Even the addition of Ben Simmons probably wouldn’t have changed this result. Is Durant ordering code red this offseason when Kyrie Irving will no doubt ask for a full max extension? Or will the Nets front office prevail and take control of the franchise to improve the franchise and enhance Durant’s remaining prime?
It is either allowed or encouraged, and there is no sign that lack of commitment is met with real resistance, real leadership. And even then, the East is too good to have that incomplete roster — even if aside from those three bad games, Durant remains the baddest man alive.
Newly crowned Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart noted the Celtics’ journey earlier in the day, citing how poorly the team played earlier in the season and how they had to dig out of a self-inflicted hole, emboldened by the lessons learned.
Now they’re teaching the Nets one hard shot at a time – simply by playing hard over longer distances and by being better than their opponent.
It sounds simple enough, but it contrasts with Nets coach Steve Nash, who said in recent days that his team is still learning from each other rather than using that knowledge when the games matter most.
Nash will take his nuggets as he was tutored by Udoka on X’s and O’s, but Udoka turned his season around by challenging his best players and perhaps risking unbuilt equity at the moment. Udoka’s game worked while Nash may have tiptoed around his stars – players he once faced off at the end of his career. Asserting authority doesn’t seem easy when the Nets’ power structure is like this: Durant and Irving’s role in bringing him in, along with their opinion that they don’t really need coaching.
What hammer can he wield then? And history says he’s certainly on his way to yet another playoff disappointment, with a generation player and overall playoff series win to boast of two years as coach.
The Nets lack size and length, needing to dust off Blake Griffin, who hasn’t played significant minutes since February, to give them a spark in the second half. After he hit a shot or jumped to the ground to maintain possession, the Celtics chased him down the other end and succeeded.
“I don’t think our spirit was right tonight,” Griffin said, likely alluding to the lack of desperate energy his team displayed.
Durant and Irving left the big stage at Madison Square Garden for hipster Brooklyn, stating they wanted to build their own tradition rather than clinging to decades of Knicks failures.
Noble enough, but building tradition takes investment, sweat capital, and attendance. Previously, Irving skipped when his presence was required, putting more pressure on Durant to do and be everything.
They’ve turned up on a first date and forgot their wallet – all that’s left is to decide who’s foam in the back.
“We’re all trying to gel, and usually you gel at the right time,” Irving said. “And the team in the other dressing room is cheering at the right time, since Christmas. We are in a new experience as a group and we have to respect that.”
Ah, Christmas. When the Nets were still busy, James Harden and Irving were still gone, having been unvaccinated and weeks away from being allowed to return in desperation as bodies kept contracting the Omicron-COVID-19 variant.
That’s when the Celtics — who, as of deadline, brought in rotation players Daniel Theis and Derrick White, contributors to that three-game demolition — were starting to figure things out. They had Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Smart as anchors, still growing and maturing to help with the transitions of new tracks.
Durant would soon be out with a knee injury. Irving would be walking in and out the door before New York Mayor Eric Adams granted him clemency, but he looked like a player unaccustomed to playing basketball regularly to beat the currents of fatigue or even the familiarity of teammates . tendencies.
Say what you will about Nash, but he had very few clues as to what his team looked like together before he stumbled upon this buzzsaw. And do you know what would have helped? A real point guard, a leader on the ground.
Irving came close to taking responsibility on a small scale, but didn’t dare to do the macro.
“I don’t have many answers as to how you’re catching up from October to now,” Irving said. “If the teams would cheer and play well. You know, you could tell me to play better, control the game better, control our possessions… not flip the ball so often.
The Celtics defense is legit, so there’s limited room to blame Irving for a bad night. But the position the Nets are in – their stars are playing difficult minutes, looking unfamiliar at times, tired at others – can be traced back to Irving.
“They must both be tired,” Nash admitted, although Durant would have none of it when asked later. “Kyrie is fasting [for Ramadan] and Kevin had to play 40+ minutes for five, six weeks after missing six, seven weeks. We need him to play 40 minutes so we can get into the playoffs.”
The Nets have been catching up all year, peering over the edge before barely retreating from the abyss. It only took a little noise in her apartment building to bring her back to the point of no return, and it echoed louder and louder through the night.
“Let’s play Celtics.”