Nets Highlights In the final quarter, the gods returned to beat the Knicks to complete the turnover
Before the start of the 2021-22 season, ESPN invited a panel of experts to predict the overall championship of the new season, the Nets and Lakers ranked in the top two, and the defending champion Bucks could only be ranked third.
Espn's prediction represented the mainstream voice of the media and fans at the time. The Nets have a super-big three combination of Durant, Irving and Harden, and if it weren't for injuries, they would have had a chance to win the championship last season. In the offseason, they successively introduced famous veterans such as Mills and Millsap, and with The comeback of Aldridge, the strength has increased unabated.
The Lakers, on the basis of the championship combination of "Zhan Mei", traded from the Wizards to westbrook, the former league MVP, and finally built the dream big three. Coupled with the addition of Anthony, the return of Howard and Rondo, the luxury of the lineup is even greater than that of the Nets.
According to statistics, the Nets and Lakers at that time both had 7 players who had been selected as All-Stars at the same time, both of which broke the NBA historical record. Well-known media CrowdPoints posted a comparison chart of the luxurious lineup of the two teams, and joked: It is better to simply let them compete in the All-Star Weekend.
What is unexpected is that 169 days after the start of the season, the Lakers have decided in advance that they will not be able to play in the playoffs, and although the Nets are in a slightly better situation, in order to retain the top eight positions in the division, they can only let Durant, who is dragging a injured foot, continue to fight desperately on the court.
Durant suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in the 2019 Finals and was unable to play for the entire 2019-20 season, but the Nets still resolutely offered him a four-year salary, just to gamble on the championship. It proved to be a successful gamble, and after a year of recuperation, Durant not only regained his health, but also fully returned to his pre-injury level, and with the assistance of two other top singles players in history, Irving and Harden, the Nets quickly became a popular candidate for the championship.
In the second round of the playoffs last year, the Nets still won consecutive big wins over the Bucks in the first game, taking a 2-0 lead, but after Irving was also injured by a pad, Durant alone carried the team and the Bucks to fight for seven games, and finally lost in overtime, regrettably out.
In the new season, Harden and Irving are back to health, coupled with the excellent reinforcement work of management in the free market, so that the Nets are ambitious and reintroduced in the championship. But it turns out that luck often plays a key role in whether a team can succeed.
This season's Nets can be described as a fate: first Irving was forced to stay away from the team because of vaccine restrictions, and shortly after the start of the season, joe Harris, the team's best shooter, suffered an ankle injury, and the recovery process was repeated several times, and finally the season reimbursement was determined. After Thanksgiving, the Omikejong virus was raging, and the Nets were hit by many people, and they could only recall Irving, but for a long time, he still had to play on the road.
Later, Durant fell to the ground in the game against the Pelicans, with 21 games in one break. During this period, the Nets experienced 11 consecutive losses, Harden because of concerns about Irving's condition and the Nets' plight, also took the initiative to apply for a trade, the Big Three only worked together for 16 games, and then fell apart.
Harden's trade bought the Nets for a young All-Star Ben Simmons, but the latter injured his lumbar spine in the process of recovering and has not yet played for the Nets. Seth Curry, who also got the sharpshooter in Harden's trade, suffered from an ankle injury and could only fight with an injury.
Under the heavy blow, the Nets went from winning the championship to the first place in the East at the beginning of the season, and the record fell all the way, before the start of today's game against the Knicks, they were 41 wins and 38 losses with the Hawks, ranking eighth in the East just by virtue of the advantage of the game record.
Durant said in a recent interview with ESPN that the turning point for the Nets this season was neither Irving's vaccine storm nor Harden's application for a trade, but his own injury. This is inevitably the suspicion of taking the initiative to show leadership style, and it is not completely objective. But Durant's health is of decisive significance to the Nets, but this is an indisputable fact.
Durant's body has been red again in recent times, and he twisted his ankle during the April 1 game against the Bucks, and although he did not miss the game, the injury has been haunting him. Nash also admitted in an interview yesterday that Durant was playing for too long, and he felt guilty about it, and let him play another 42 minutes and 11 seconds today!
In fact, the season went to this stage, and if it were not for the standings in the playoffs, the Nets should not have let Durant play back-to-back games. But it turns out that if Durant doesn't play today, the Nets won't be able to win the game.
Today's Nets away challenge to the Knicks, although there is a gimmick in the New York derby, but the two major interior lines opposite are all injured, and they should have been bloodless. Judging from Durant's on-court performance at the beginning of the game, it seems that he is also planning to let Irving solve the fight and rest on the court himself. As a result, the Nets were confused by the opponent as soon as they came up, and the score was 50-67 in the half, and at most, the difference in points on the court reached 21 points.
So Durant had to play the second half and make 15 crazy shots in the final two quarters before joining forces with Irving to win this tough win.
A reversal should have been encouraging, but facing such a Knicks, and still playing so stumbling, it is impossible to be too optimistic about the Nets' playoff prospects.
Today the Nets Hawks won at the same time, so the ranking remains the same, but there are two games left in the regular season, and until the last minute, no one knows how it will turn out. And even if the Nets can hold the eighth position in the East, how far can they go?
According to the rules of the playoffs, if the regular season ends today, the Nets will compete with the Cavaliers (seventh in the East), the Hawks (ninth) and the Hornets (tenth) for two playoff spots. They start by playing one game on the road to the Cavaliers, with the winner becoming the No. 7 seed in the East. If they lose to the Cavaliers, they will have to compete with the winner between the Eagles and the Hornets for the Eighth Seed in the East, which is also a game of certainty, and it will be decided who will win.
And if the Nets don't do well in their last two games and their record is overtaken by the Hawks and even the Hornets (currently 1.5 wins behind the Nets), they'll have to win two games in a row to qualify for the playoffs.
Let's assume that the Nets can successfully break through from the playoffs, whether it is seventh or eighth, and the potential opponents they will face next will be the Heat, Celtics, Bucks, 76ers, Raptors, Bulls, among which in addition to the Bulls' recent poor condition, the other teams are significantly better than the Nets.
After being forced to send Harden away, the Nets have always had huge holes in offensive organization, which is why they actively persuaded veteran Dragic to join in the buyout market. Irving is not a qualified organizer, the current Nets, basically Durant in the role of the organization of the forward, and the ball he passes, teammates can shoot, directly determine the fate of the team.
Today's game, the reason why the Nets started passively was because the shooters did not perform well (5 of 18 of 18 in the first half), and the second half was able to complete a big reversal, in addition to Durant's increase in personal shots, Mills's feel recovery also played a key role.
Mills played nearly 40 percent of three-point shots this season, but the play was extremely erratic, and he and Curry, as the Nets' best shooters at the moment, both had huge flaws on the defensive end, and now the entire Nets team can't even find a player who can be called "3D".
Simmons, if able to make a comeback, could help the team in terms of organization and defense, freeing Durant from the current heavy game tasks and focusing more on individual scoring. But when will Simmons be back? Can you come back? It's hard to say now. Even if Simmons can return this season, he and the Nets will have to complete the run-in from scratch, and in the playoffs where every game is a matter of life and death, this is a potentially fatal hidden danger.
Of course, while the Nets are currently in a position far below expectations before the start of the season, there is hope as long as there is a breath. After all, no one can predict the future.
At this point, they're much better than the Lakers.