The NBA regular season continues, and earlier today, the Brooklyn Nets took on the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road. The two sides fought fiercely for four quarters, and finally the Nets lost 125-136 to the Timberwolves, losing the first place in the East.
As soon as the battle came up, the two sides were hot to attack, Russell felt hot and constantly took points, Irving led the team to respond in time, the Timberwolves led by 1 point at the end of the first quarter, the second quarter returned, the two sides continued to stalemate, the mid-range Nets attack suddenly stopped, the Timberwolves blossomed more and gradually opened the score, halftime, the Timberwolves won a 10-point advantage.
After the war, Harden joined hands with Irving to chase points, but Russell continued to feel hot, the Timberwolves continued to lead by 7 points after the end of the third quarter, and in the last quarter, Irving led the team to continue to close the score, but then the Nets attack suddenly lost power, Towns found the state to lead the team to blast out a 14-3 offensive climax, the difference between the two teams returned to double digits, the Nets chased the points unsuccessfully, and finally the Timberwolves beat the Nets 136-125.
In this campaign, Irving played 34 minutes and 36 seconds, shooting 11 of 20, including 3 of 8 from three points and 5 of 5 from the free throw line, scoring a season-high 30 points, plus 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 steal. Harden played average, playing 35 minutes, shooting only 4 of 13, 1 of 4 three-pointers, 4 of 4 free throws, 13 points, 5 boards, 13 assists and 1 break, and also made 6 turnovers. Mills played 33 minutes and 29 seconds, shooting 8-of-15 from the field, 5-of-10 from three-point range, with 21 points, three rebounds and one assist, Edwards played 29 minutes with 15 points and five rebounds, and Thomas played 15 minutes with 11 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist.
In this game, the Nets scored 15 free throws and the Timberwolves scored 31 free throws. Speaking about the referee blowing penalties for the game, Irving said: "I just want to play in a standard-consistent whistle. Some of Harden's violations should be respected. ”
This game also exposed many problems with the Nets, the first of which was Harden's ups and downs. Harden seemed to be sleepwalking again in this game, scoring 13 points and 13 assists on 4-of-3 shooting, but there were 6 turnovers. A large part of whether the Nets can win depends on Harden's performance. Now that Durant has been injured, Irving can only play away, once back to the home game, the team really can only rely on Harden to organize, so whether the Nets can win Harden's state is crucial.
The second is that the Nets' No. 5 problem is too serious. Whether it's Clarkston, Sharp or Ade or Griffin, they are not the fifth position that can take care of both offensive and defensive ends. While they can help the team a lot on the offensive end, on the defensive end, problems such as slow movement often become the object of breakthrough for other teams. Veterans like Griffin and Aldridge have begun to decline in their level of competition, while young players such as Sharp and Clarkston are often inexperienced and unable to make accurate judgments about the situation on the pitch.
For the Nets, losing a game is worth seeing the problems inside the team. Now that the regular season is halfway through and there's still some time to go into the playoffs, the Nets have plenty of time to address those issues. If these issues remain unresolved, they are likely to continue to break the playoffs.