Durant cracks half-century mark to top lowly Pistons, but Nets need more 51!
NETS 116 PISTONS 104
Add another veteran point guard to the list of additions the Nets need to make en route to their championship dreams.
That’s the biggest takeaway from the Nets’ 116-104 victory over the Pistons on Sunday evening, despite Kevin Durant’s 51-point night.
In the first game James Harden rested all season, the Nets succumbed to the Pistons’ pressing defense and turned the ball over 17 times until flat-out blasting them in a monster fourth quarter.
They need an experienced floor general on the roster behind Patty Mills to shore up the lack of depth at the one in case Harden misses games in the future.
“I felt like their pressure was definitely getting to us. We turned the ball over like four straight times at half-court and gave them wide-open layups, which got them into the game, a couple and-1s, too,” said Durant. “So they saw that we were lacking ball-handlers, point guards and they wanted to pressure us.”
For what it’s worth, coach Steve Nash doesn’t think the Nets have a need for more depth at the one. He pointed to the versatility in playmakers on the roster, from backup point guard Patty Mills to Swiss-army knife James Johnson and, of course, Durant, who dished off nine assists as the primary playmaker and facilitator on the floor.
But the Nets struggled mightily in the minutes Durant spent on the bench, and despite his impressive playmaking, he, too, turned the ball over five times. In one third-quarter stretch, the Nets turned the ball at the halfcourt line on three straight possessions, giving six easy points to the Pistons in a mini-run that forced Nash to call a timeout.
“I think (the turnovers on that stretch were) more circumstantial,” Nash said. “We just had a tough stretch, guys made consecutive turnovers trying to get over half court. So you give some credit to Detroit, and then you also think usually our guys will handle that pressure.”
The most glaring circumstance this season is in their backcourt, where Kyrie Irving is unavailable due to New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and where Harden needs to have breaks throughout the regular season if he’s going to have extra fuel for the playoffs.
Harden, a former league MVP who has been tabbed an ironman most of his career, missed 20 games with a Grade 2 hamstring strain last season, then re-aggravated that injury in the playoffs before playing virtually on one leg in the Nets’ second-round exit to the Bucks. And once Irving went down with an ankle sprain in that series, the lack of a backup playmaker (in Spencer Dinwiddie’s absence) crippled the Nets.
Mills is an experienced backup point guard and an NBA champion from his time on the Spurs, but with Mills as a starter in Harden’s absence, the lack of another backup point guard becomes more apparent.
And if the only chance of Irving returning to the Nets this season lies in his willingness to take a plant-based COVID-19 vaccine, general manager Sean Marks should cover himself and his team and add more depth, specifically at the one.
Durant played the one against the Pistons on Sunday. In truth, he played all five positions in a performance blemished only by those five turnovers. The Pistons (4-22) own the NBA’s worst record and in the end were no match for the Nets’ might. Even without Harden, the Nets had options: LaMarcus Aldridge scored 15, Mills scored 18 to go with five assists to two turnovers, and Cam Thomas, the rookie becoming a household name in Brooklyn, scored 13 off the bench.
The Nets ultimately blew the top off the Little Caesars Arena with a 30-13 fourth quarter including a 19-1 start to the period. But that’s what they’re supposed to do, especially against the league’s worst team.
The Nets have not been shy about their championship aspirations. A win against the Pistons—no matter how “hard they play” and regardless of the fact that they gave their “best shot”—can no longer be something to celebrate.
The Nets have bigger fish to fry: Their path to the NBA Finals will not include a trip to Detroit. Instead it will feature likely pit stops in Milwaukee, Miami or Chicago, against teams they have yet to beat this season.