NETS HAD IT ALL, UNTIL ‘IT’ VANISHED
The Nets’ season crumbled before my very eyes. And yet they still almost won it all. Their second-round exit via the Milwaukee Bucks in a season lush with championship aspirations was remarkable because they shouldn’t have stood a chance, yet they nearly pulled it off.
The wild circumstances that derailed their promising season — COVID protocols, a midseason blockbuster trade, a rookie head coach’s growing pains and a yearlong bout with the injury bug — make it nearly impossible to judge a team hit with every curveball in the book. This team doesn’t get a pass or fail, but a grade worse: an incomplete.
“To take that team without (Kyrie Irving) and (with James Harden) on one leg, out there doing anything he can to help his teammates. It’s just really, really proud of the group, and I hurt for them more than anything,” an exasperated Steve Nash said.
I was in Milwaukee for Game 4, full of cheese, shellfish, red meat and red wine, and there it happened: Down goes Frazier.
The Nets’ odds in this series went down the drain with Kyrie Irving’s “sprained ankle,” the injury Kevin Durant described as “gruesome.” The Nets have since offered no additional information regarding its severity. Irving landed onto Giannis Antetokounmpo’s foot, and remember those same Bucks fans who cursed Durant’s name in Milwaukee? They gasped in near horror as Irving agonized in pain on the Fiserv Forum floors, in need of help to reach his feet before limping off the court.
“It definitely was tough,” Jeff Green said of Irving’s injury. “We’ve been fighting all year to get everybody healthy, and at the time that we were getting there for myself and James, it strikes again.”
It was at that moment the series became crystal clear. The Nets were absolutely screwed.
You see, the Bucks are a very good team, and as Biggie once said, “If you don’t know, now you know.” Yes, the Heat snuck them last season, but not only did the Bucks sweep Miami in the first round, Antetokounmpo said they didn’t want to play with their food. Their food.
The Nets became deer food the second Irving went down. It’s why Durant played 141 minutes from Games 5-7, including all 53 minutes of Game 7 and all 48 minutes of his 49-point Master Class in Game 5. It’s why Harden rushed back from a hamstring injury and played 46 minutes in Game 5, on his first day playing at all since Game 1. He then played all 53 minutes in Game 7, on one hamstring, alongside Durant, both responsible for picking up the slack left by their costar’s absence.
“He’s a huge part of what we’re doing and what we’re trying to do. As far as his leadership, his ability on the court, just everything,” Harden said of Irving. “In this scenario, it’s myself and Kai that (were injured). Basically we just put too much stress on Kevin. It was just too much stress on everybody. It’s difficult.”
A healthy Irving solves those issues, and then some. After all, you trade for a third star as insurance in case one goes down. When two stars go down, you suddenly wish you hadn’t traded all that depth (or those draft picks).
Irving went down in the most efficient season of his career, averaging 27 points and shooting 50% from the field, 40% from three and 92% from the foul line to join Nash, Durant and Stephen Curry in the historic 5040-90 Club. Had he not gone down, the Nets could have won Game 4, then closed the series at home in Game 5. Even with Harden taking the helm at the point, and even with Durant’s superheroic scoring powers, Irving’s aggressive efficiency made him the head of the Nets’ snake.
“James really just couldn’t play like himself. They were just staying on his shot because he really couldn’t move or get to the rim like he usually does,” said Bruce Brown, who played 52 of 53 possible Game 7 minutes. “But when Kai’s out there that’s another scorer, that’s another person they’ve got to worry about. So it’s just tough. Injuries killed us this year for sure.”
From Irving’s injury on, this second-round series became a rather simple equation: The Bucks had more healthy, good players than the Nets, plus one hell of a coach.
And to be clear, Steve Nash is Steve Nash, but he is no Mike Budenholzer.
Durant played the best basketball I have ever witnessed in-person. His 48- and 49-point performances will live in Barclays Center lore, and the turnaround shot he hit over Tucker might be the best shot he’s ever made, even though he says it’s not.
But he didn’t have enough help: a onelegged Harden may have done more harm than good (though you have to tip your cap to the man for trying), Joe Harris couldn’t buy a basket, and Durant came up one shot short. If Irving is healthy, Harris gets cleaner looks (though inexplicably missed many wideopen shots), Durant doesn’t have to play 53 minutes or take all the shots, and maybe Harden gets Game 5 off instead of rushing back to help his team.
The Nets clearly didn’t have the firepower, and they still had a chance to win it, just like they almost won those two regular-season games in Milwaukee with Harden on the injured list.
Had Durant’s size 18 sneakers (on size 17 feet) not touched the three-point line on a remarkable turnaround shot, the Nets would have led by one with one second to go in the fourth quarter.
“But my big ass foot was on the line,” Durant deadpanned postgame. “I just saw off a screenshot how close I was to ending their season off that shot.”
There was no lead, and the Nets scored just once in overtime. It’s the Nets’ season that ended in Game 7, and the only fans left at Barclays Center after the final buzzer were the ones cheering Antetokounmpo as he walked off the floor, and the ones screaming “We love you, Khris!” after yet another strong performance from Khris Middleton.
The Nets played the hand they were dealt and were flushed by the Bucks. They’ve been slapped with an early offseason some weren’t expecting at all.
“I wasn’t even planning on losing, you know what I’m saying?” said Durant after a second near 50-ball in the final three games. “So I don’t know how I’m gonna feel. I’m always thinking about our team and how we can get better and what we can do individually. I want to take a few days off.”
This is what pain feels like in Brooklyn, where the Nets were championship favorites who couldn’t stay healthy enough to realize their goals. That pain, however, has a caveat: When healthy, the Nets have the best trio in all of basketball and a deep roster that has weaknesses the team has proven capable of covering.
There’s no covering for an injured star, and certainly not two injured stars. So while the Nets’ season ended earlier than anyone anticipated, a second-round exit became immediately possible, if not likely, once Irving’s ankle sprained into next season.
“I knew it was possible, especially with all the stuff we faced,” Nash said of an early exit. “You’re missing Kyrie, James is on one leg, you have to understand it’s not the same. And so I still thought we could win it and clearly I think we proved tonight that we could. Game could have gone either way.”