The Nets play their greatest basketball with their backs in opposition to the wall. That’s why their championship hopes are nonetheless alive in what appears to be like like a misplaced season.
The Nets trailed by 17 factors on the half and confronted a deficit as massive as 21 within the third quarter earlier than turning on the jets to make it a good sport within the fourth quarter. That’s when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving shouldered the load to hold their staff to a 110-98 win over their cross-town rivals, the Knicks, on the Backyard.
It’s occurred time and time once more this season. The Nets have dug themselves early-game holes solely to come back again to win within the second half.
It’s a microcosm for the place they stand within the season.
The Nets have dug themselves a gap, free-falling from first to eighth within the Japanese Convention. However similar to there’s by no means a lead too massive, there isn’t a spot within the standings too large for them to beat, both. Not with the expertise on this roster. Not once they’re engaged like they had been within the second half in opposition to the Knicks.
“I feel it’s in there. It’s in there,” head coach Steve Nash stated. “What I might say although is that, present the resilience to beat fatigue, missed photographs, to play a greater first half. That’s resilience, too.”
The actual fact their backs had been in opposition to the wall in opposition to a Knicks staff seeded twelfth within the East with out starters Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Derrick Rose is regarding approaching the ultimate two decisive video games of the common season earlier than Tuesday’s play-in match.
The Knicks (35-45) are 10 video games below-.500. They've grow to be synonymous with blown leads, failed late-game execution and fumbling the bag after a fourth-seeded end final season. That staff constructed a lead that will have swallowed most.
However the Nets continued to show they aren’t most groups.
The Knicks aren’t like most groups, both — they’re not like most groups standing in-between the Nets and the Larry O’Brien championship trophy. The highway to the NBA Finals will undoubtedly have pit stops in Miami, Milwaukee, Boston or Philadelphia. The Knicks don’t even belong in the identical sentence as these groups.
Which makes Wednesday’s end result polarizing. The Nets trailed by greater than 20, at occasions trying disinterested in successful a sport they wanted, earlier than exhibiting up the Knicks on their very own ground. Earlier than exhibiting their so-called massive brother who’s actually the boss within the Massive Apple.
There are two methods of viewing the glass, and each are right: The Nets ought to have by no means trailed by that a lot in opposition to such a lesser opponent, however they confirmed their backbone and resolve coming again through a 33-point swing to safe their possibilities at ending seventh within the East.
“It’s dangerous. I hate being down. I hate even being that staff: get down and struggle again,” Durant stated. “Like I don’t like that s—. I don’t need that to be part of who we're. That scenario could come, however for us it’s about sticking collectively, making the suitable play whatever the rating.”
The Nets are one of many hardest groups to learn in all of basketball. They run little to no offensive units. Their effort fluctuates every day. Their solely identifiable actions are “get the ball to Durant or Irving and get out of the best way,” or the occasional pick-and-roll, which ends up in an try on the rim, a kick-out to a shooter or, look forward to it, the ball again in both Durant or Irving’s fingers. Their protection picks and chooses which quarters, generally which video games, it needs to indicate.
But, when the Nets are enjoying impressed protection like they had been within the second half in opposition to the Knicks, the restricted offensive play-calling is sufficient. That’s why you make investments greater than $300 million in your two celebrity scorers.
They will get you a basket when most others can’t. And so they can get you a win out of skinny air.
What appeared like a misplaced sport and a misplaced season at halftime nonetheless appeared like a staff with at the least a puncher’s probability at successful a championship. There is no such thing as a deficit too massive for the Nets to beat.
“The satisfying half is understanding that we have now this struggle in us,” veteran guard Patty Mills stated. “Now we have what we have to get the job performed on any given night time, in addition to the assumption that we will be the final staff standing. … Now we have this struggle in us, understanding we will be the staff we have to be.”
Now there’s another lead for the Nets to come back again from: trailing within the standings because the eighth seed making an attempt to make the NBA Finals. It’s an uphill battle, however this staff has the struggle. They only have to string collectively full video games, full sequence, not simply strong stretches, as a result of as we realized within the second spherical in opposition to the Bucks final season, generally a great 48 minutes nonetheless isn’t sufficient.
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