Brooklyn Nets advance to playoffs with room for improvement
By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer
BROOKLYN — In the end, they got the result they needed. And that counts for something.
The Brooklyn Nets, after their 115-108 play-in tournament win Tuesday night over the Cleveland Cavaliers, are headed to the playoffs. Whoopee!
"I thought for large portions of the game we played well," Nets head coach Steve Nash said after the game as the sounds from his team’s locker room celebration leaked into the interview room.
This, in a way, was what the Nets envisioned when they reeled in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving more than two years ago — two stars playing like stars and lifting their team to an important victory.
Irving hit his first 12 shots Tuesday and finished with 34 points and 12 assists. Durant added 25 points and 11 assists, along with three blocks and two steals. Both drilled shots and made plays that most players wouldn’t even try.
But the Nets also watched a 22-point lead shrink to six. They allowed the team ranked 19th in offense to rack up 108 points, with 60 of them coming in the paint — even more incredible considering that the Cavaliers were playing without starting center Jarrett Allen, who missed the game due to a finger injury.
The Nets received A-plus efforts from their two stars but still had trouble putting away a depleted Cavs team that dropped seven of its final 10 regular-season games.
"You know, we obviously had a stretch there where we had a hard time scoring," Nash added, "and a stretch there where we had a hard time getting stops."
This has been the story of the Nets’ season: flashes of brilliance mixed with big, flashing signs warning of danger ahead.
Tuesday's win over the Cavaliers means the Nets will enter the playoffs as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. Their reward? A matchup with the Boston Celtics, a team that went 31-10 in the second half of the season.
The Celtics own one of the league’s best defenses. Jayson Tatum has become one of the league’s premier offensive weapons, a player who leaves opponents feeling helpless.
Here, for example, is how Durant responded Tuesday when asked how the Nets could slow Tatum down: "S---. That’s a tough question. He’s one of those players you gotta play hard and see what happens. He’s just so talented and skilled and efficient in what he does."
It’s not that the Nets can’t reel off four wins against the Celtics (and then 12 more after that). The presence of Durant means the Nets will have the best player on the floor no matter whom they play, a 7-footer with a silky stroke who can bury shots over multiple defenders and, at the same time, punish defenses for over-helping.
"I don't know a lot of 7-footers that are doing what he's doing with the ball in his hands as a playmaker as often as he is," Irving said of his teammate.
But the problem is just how much the Nets are asking of their two stars. Put another way, it's how much production they need from those two in order to have a shot.
Tuesday’s play-in win was a perfect example. Irving and Durant both went 42 minutes against the Cavaliers. The Nets hemorrhaged points whenever the duo stepped off the court.
The team’s depth, as has been the case throughout this season, was a problem — not because of their skills but rather because of their skill sets. The pieces just don’t fit.
The Nets' best shooter (Seth Curry) can’t play alongside their best guard (Irving). Their best interior defender (Nic Claxton) can’t play alongside their best rim-runner (Bruce Brown). Nash said before the game that Ben Simmons was beginning to do some more on-court work but added that there are still many hurdles for Simmons to clear before he suits up for a game. And even if he does return, his inability and unwillingness to shoot only makes this puzzle more complex.
What’s the answer? Since taking the job last year, Nash’s primary solution has seemingly been to lean on Durant as much as possible. Limit his rest. Slot him onto the opponent’s top gun.
The brilliance of Durant is that he’s capable of doing all of that — of playing 48 minutes and scoring 40 and hounding players such as Tatum. But can he do that four times in seven games, and can Irving go for 30 and 10, and can the Nets survive opponents forcing their stars to give up the ball so that players such as Brown lead Brooklyn in shot attempts, the way he did Tuesday?
It’s all possible. But it's also unlikely. And that’s not a word that was ever supposed to be used to describe the title chances of a Nets team led by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.