On January 4, Beijing time, the Nets played at home against the Grizzlies, and the Nets lost to the Grizzlies 104-118 at the end of the game. Although the Nets did not lose too many points in the end, but in this game the Nets were once in a big score behind, if it is not the Nets' bench players in the fourth quarter of the game to fight back, then the Nets will definitely suffer a fiasco, after all, the nets in the third quarter of the game is very bad performance, Morant's outbreak is to hit the Nets without resistance, so the Nets still exposed a lot of problems in this game.
Durant's performance in this game is not good, especially in the second quarter of the game Durant's feel is very sluggish, although durant found some state in the third quarter of the game, but this is no way to help the team reverse the situation, and finally Durant got 26 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists in 8 of 24, while Morant performed well in this game, but also relied on his play Grizzlies is to occupy the lead of the big score, after this game Durant made an evaluation of Morant, when asked about Morant's play today, Durant commented: "You can see him blooming before our eyes." It is clear that Morant's performance on the court has been recognized by Durant, after all, Morant is really unstoppable in this game, and his performance on the court is indeed convincing.
After the game, Harden spoke about Irving in an interview with the media. Harden said: Irving has a special talent, but there are some things that need to be corrected within our team and individually, and we have to perform better on the defensive end. Now Harden is undoubtedly a requirement for the team, in Harden's view, the current Nets need to improve their own defense, in this game the Nets' rebounds are really robbed, the Nets only grabbed 33 rebounds at the end of the game, and the Grizzlies side is to grab 61 rebounds, it can be said that the gap between the two teams is huge, in the game the Grizzlies get too many secondary offensive opportunities, on the contrary, the Nets rebounds were robbed after the offensive state was also sluggish, so the Nets suffered a fiasco at all.
And at this time, the Nets need to have the third big to stand out, in the past game Mills or Aldridge can play such a role, but in this game Aldridge did not play, Mills did not play a good performance, so many times the Nets can rely on Durant and Harden to support, but the two will also fall into the passive in the game, so when the two can not play, then the Nets want to win will become very difficult, Mills scored a point of 0-of-6 in this game. Although Irving will return in the next game, Irving can only play away games, and even when there are epidemic prevention regulations in the away game, it is really difficult to say whether Irving can play.
So Irving can certainly bring help to the Nets, but the current Nets can not fully count on Irving, after all, Irving's things here make the Nets too passive, you have no way to count on him in every game, so at this time the Nets still need Mills and others to become the third big man of the team, especially now the Nets are in trouble, and the Nets' next schedule is relatively difficult, the Pacers, Bucks, Spurs and Bulls, of which the Bucks and Bulls are undoubtedly hard stubble, So now the Nets desperately need the Big Three, and they need someone to step up and help Durant and Harden.