KD’s Brilliance Rescues Nets Again, But He’ll Need Some Help Going Forward Dealing With Increasing Double Teams
Will His Lashing Out At Adams In Postgame Remarks Impact Ridiculous Irving Home Ban?
Late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s nationally televised contest at Barclays Center, the Nets were holding a seven-point lead over their intra-borough rival Knicks when Nets superstar Kevin Durant was blitzed by a New York triple team. Durant had the ball ripped out of his hands by Knicks forward Julius Randle, who got away with a pretty obvious foul and then took off as he was grabbed by Nets guard Goran Dragic.
It was ruled a clear-path foul, which meant the Knicks kept the ball after Randle’s two free throws. Guard Evan Fournier then beat the shot clock with a difficult corner three-pointer to finish off a rare five-point Knicks possession.
It was the type of play that could have turned the game around, but on this day, KD wasn’t going to let Brooklyn lose. Over the final two minutes of a tie game, Durant took over, burying a contested three-pointer to give the Nets a 106-103 lead and then hitting four consecutive clutch free throws to complete a spectacular 53-point outing.
The Nets (35-33) survived in a must-win game, 110-107, thanks to Durant’s sturdy back. On top of the otherworldly scoring (a Nets franchise record versus their neighbors and the second-highest point total of his illustrious career), KD padded the stat sheet with 9 assists, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals in 43 minutes of his fifth game back after missing the prior 23 games with an MCL sprain.
“Let me die out there,” Durant said after the game when asked by the media about his taxing workload for a regular season contest.
While that may be a good strategy to win a particular game, especially one where Seth Curry (ankle) was a late scratch, joining Joe Harris (ankle), LaMarcus Aldridge (hip), Ben Simmons (back and return to competition conditioning), and Kyrie Irving (unvaccinated, see below) in street clothes, it’s probably not wise in the big picture. For the Nets need a healthy and fresh Durant to have any chance at advancing in the postseason tournament. While there is no proof of cause and effect, KD logged over 40 minutes in three of the five games before his injury, including 43-and-42-minute runs on a crazy cross-country back-to-back.
Why it took so long for Knicks Head Coach Tom Thibodeau to run extra defenders at Durant when he was that zoned in from the get-go is a story for a different forum, but the tactic is something the Nets will have to expect so long as New York City’s Private Employer vaccine mandate prevents Irving from suiting up for home games. In total, Irving is ineligible to play in 10 of the Nets’ final 14 games, so the team is in a bind. Someone—anyone--must step up to carry some offensive weight against opponents who will be far superior to the 12th place Knicks.
The player in the best position to do so is Dragic, whom the Nets scooped up from San Antonio in the buyout market on February 22. This was the reason the Nets and Head Coach Steve Nash recruited him so heavily and why Dragic chose them over others in better positions to compete for a title this season. Desperation, meet opportunity.
Dragic, who turns 36 in May, hadn’t stepped foot on the court in an NBA game since November 13, as a member of the Raptors, before donning a Nets uniform. Obviously a bit rusty and not in the soundest basketball shape, he was going to need time to (Copyright: Brooklyn Nets) ramp up.
The 38 minutes Dragic toiled against the Knicks suggests the conditioning portion is close to complete; now he just needs to take his game up many notches.
Dragic’s usage, which measures the percentage of his team’s plays he is involved with when he is on the floor, in his first eight games as a Net is a mere 16.5%. To put that into context, he hasn’t had a rate below 20% since his rookie season of 2008-09.
While there is value in having a point guard who can get things organized as he brings the ball up, the expectation was that Dragic would be more productive with it thereafter. His assist metrics are strong (7.2 per 36 minutes, his best rate in a decade), but his shooting split (small sample size disclaimer) of 34.5/30.4/61.5 hasn’t helped solve Brooklyn’s floor spacing problems.
Dragic simply needs to attack more, especially in the non-KD minutes. He was always dependent more on guile than speed, so his age shouldn’t be as much of a hindrance. Like his coach was during their time together in Phoenix, Dragic is a master at maintaining his dribble until the last possible moment, and then pivoting until he finds the proper angle to get off his shot. He should be getting to the line more than 2.5 times per 36 minutes, which would also be a career low for him.
Against the Knicks, there was too much hit-and-miss—a great find to Patty Mills for an early fourth-quarter corner three-ball followed by a foot shuffle for a travelling violation with 2:39 remaining. The aforementioned bad take foul and then a key steal of Randle with 1:11 left.
The good news is that, thanks to KD, Brooklyn managed to win their straight third game and will get Irving back for Tuesday’s trip to Orlando. But then that’s followed by a three-game homestand. Hopefully by then Dragic will find his groove.
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Good for Durant for chiming in after Sunday’s game on the ridiculous inconsistency in the City’s protocols that are supposed to be in the name of community health. Whereas the Nets organization has kept their displeasure low-key (Side note: While the Nets didn’t put Irving in their “Who’s in the House?” lineup, he was featured on the jumbotron during one stoppage.), KD took specific aim at Mayor Eric Adams.
The Nets’ approach hasn’t worked to date, so maybe a little pressure from one of the most popular players among voters will do some good. At an event earlier in the day, Adams had a harsh retort for an Irving fan. “Kyrie can play tomorrow—get vaccinated,” Adams said. So, tell me again how the Nets are “optimistic” that this will get settled soon?
Adams isn’t wrong—the entire situation would have been avoided if Irving just did the right thing and got the jab. That doesn’t change the current issue: On Sunday, Irving purchased a ticket so he could sit—unmasked--in the front row to watch his teammates up close. At halftime, he joined the Nets in the locker room. The prior day, he practiced with the team.
Somehow, none of this was against the City’s rules. Yet Irving couldn’t perform, even though opposing unvaccinated players have the green light.
No scientist would bless this mishmash of policies. Durant basically said out loud what I wrote back on February 27 in anticipation of this period where the Omicron variant has drastically receded (Mayor Adams: Stop Punishing Nets Fans With Outdated Vaccine Mandate (substack.com).
“I don’t get it,” Durant said. “It just feels like at this point now somebody's trying to make a statement or a point to flex their authority. But everybody’s looking for attention & that’s what I felt like the mayor wants right now, some attention."
Durant closed out his response with, “Early on in the season, people didn’t understand what was going on but now, (the mandate) just looks stupid. Hopefully, Eric, you gotta figure this out.”
Amen.