The Nets have been anticipating to vie for N.B.A. championships, and maybe some day they may. However that day will not be now, and one other abbreviated postseason look ended on Monday when the Boston Celtics defeated them, 116-112, to finish a four-game sweep of their first-round playoff collection.
It was a becoming finale to a disjointed season for the seventh-seeded Nets, who spent months biking via a motley forged of characters. They have been undone by accidents and absences, by a mishmash roster that might not unearth a coherent model of basketball, and, lastly, by a superior opponent that put its suffocating clamps on two of the planet’s greatest gamers.
The Celtics produced the league’s top-ranked protection within the common season, and so they proved it was no fluke towards Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Ime Udoka, the Celtics’ first-year coach, was one in all Coach Steve Nash’s assistants in Brooklyn final season, and he utilized his institutional information all through the collection.
Subsequent up for the second-seeded Celtics is the winner of the first-round collection between the Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks. The defending champion Bucks have a three-games-to-one lead coming into Recreation 5 of their collection on Wednesday.
The Nets, who had the second-highest payroll within the league this season, will attempt to recalibrate. Nash, who was employed by the Nets in 2020 with none head teaching expertise, has now presided over two early postseason exits. (The Nets misplaced to the Bucks within the Jap Convention semifinals final season.) Irving, who can develop into an unrestricted free agent, has stated that he intends to re-sign with the group. However he appeared in solely 29 regular-season video games this season due to his refusal to be vaccinated towards the coronavirus.
The season was additionally interrupted by a midseason commerce with the Philadelphia 76ers, who acquired James Harden in trade for a bundle that included Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and draft picks. Simmons arrived in Brooklyn with a balky again and stated he had been coping with psychological well being points for months. He by no means appeared in uniform.
As for the Harden experiment, it was a bust. Harden, Durant and Irving performed collectively in simply 16 video games over two seasons, together with the playoffs.
Earlier than Recreation 4, Nash mirrored on the Nets’ tumultuous season and spun it ahead, saying it had made the group “higher” and “stronger.”
“We took the problem and all of us grew from it,” he stated. “And sooner or later, these challenges will afford us quite a bit. We hope that we don’t should face so many going ahead, although.”
Durant missed 21 video games after spraining his knee in January, then performed heavy minutes late within the common season because the group scrambled for a spot within the play-in match. After Durant tried simply 11 subject targets towards the Celtics in Recreation 3, Nash acknowledged that fatigue could have performed a task.
“Kevin’s needed to play 40-plus minutes for five-plus weeks after lacking six, seven weeks,” he stated, including, “I’m certain that’s taken a giant toll.”
And there have been the group’s extremely publicized absences. Simmons watched the primary three video games of the collection from the bench in avenue garments. Harden now performs in Philadelphia. And Joe Harris, one of many group’s greatest shooters, had a bone particle faraway from his left ankle in November. When his rehabilitation had a setback, he underwent one other surgical process in March that ended his season.
In opposition to the Celtics, the Nets missed Harris’s size on protection alongside along with his means to stretch the ground as a 3-point risk. Consequently, the Celtics may very well be much more aggressive about sticking a number of defenders on Durant each time he touched the ball.
The collection itself was a swift descent into futility. After the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum received Recreation 1 with a buzzer-beating layup, Irving used a number of profanities to explain his interactions with followers who have been sitting courtside in Boston. (The N.B.A. subsequently fined Irving $50,000 for making obscene gestures.) After the Nets acquired thumped in Recreation 2, Irving heaped reward on the Celtics’ younger core, telling reporters that “their time is now.” And after he struggled in Recreation 3, Durant sounded baffled at his postgame information convention. What might he probably do to maintain the collection alive? He didn’t have any speedy options.
“Perhaps shoot extra, perhaps be smarter,” he stated in a gradual monotone. “Catch the ball nearer to the rim. Play sooner. Catch and shoot extra.”
Durant stated he would attempt to “determine it out” by learning extra movie forward of Recreation 4.
Now, the Nets have a complete summer time to seek for solutions.
