In November last year, Durant made a controversial remark in an interview, saying: Look at our starting lineup, there is no disrespect for others, but what else do you think of this set of starters? You expect us to win because of me. After this remark, the outside world accused Durant of disrespecting his teammates, and then Durant came forward to express his position, saying that his original intention was only to try to protect his teammates from the expectations of the outside world.
However, regardless of the intention, now that Durant is missing three games, people have seen the truth of the matter, this team really can't win without Durant, after today's defeat to the league's fourth-to-last Spurs, in three games without Durant, the Nets have lost everything, and after losing these three games, the Nets have a 27-16 record, and have dropped to fourth in the East.
According to the latest news, it is still unknown whether Durant can play All-Star, so the Cleveland Cavaliers with the same victory are likely to surpass the Nets in the next few days, and the Knicks, Heat and other teams behind are also in good shape recently, and they are also eyeing valuable opportunities to stay away from the play-offs.
Without Durant, the Nets' offense seems to be a pool of stagnant water, 99 offensive efficiency is the bottom of the league, and it has become the only team that has failed to achieve triple-digit offensive efficiency, which is rare in today's scoring league.
All this, of course, is closely related to Durant's absence, and this season, when Durant is on the floor, the Nets have an offensive efficiency of 117. In fact, this season's Durant is in the top five in the league on the offensive end, which is not easy for a 34-year-old veteran, a normal player who is on the verge of retirement at this age, and Durant seems to ignore his own thirty years.
This season, Durant averaged 29.7 points per game, ranking seventh on the scoring list. What's rare is that if you look at the overall shooting percentage, Durant's 55.9% shooting percentage ranks first among the top ten scorers in the league.
Looking at the authoritative high-level data DPM, Durant's O-DPM of 5.2 ranks second in the league, second only to his cousin Lillard, which is enough to see Durant's role on the offensive end this season.
For the Nets, the only good news is that even if Durant is absent due to injury, the team's performance on the defensive end continues the good performance after Coach Vaughn took office, as long as the basic set of defense is maintained, then the complete Nets are still worth looking forward to.
What the Nets will have to do now is to fight for as many wins as possible before Durant recovers from injury, and not stay away from the upper half of the East. Otherwise, the bleak ending of last year's first round may have to be staged again.
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