The combination of Irving, Durant and Harden helped the Nets to win the Bulls at the top of the Eastern Conference by 26 points, which can be said to prove from one side that the Nets want to dominate in the future playoffs, and indeed need the participation of the big three. Although Irving's personal data is not conspicuous, he is a deterrent to the opponent in itself, and there is an extra strong point in the team, Durant and Harden also played more easily, contributing 27 points and 25 points and 16 assists respectively, becoming the winner in front of the Bulls, and the winning gap between the two teams has been narrowed to 1.5. In a new round, the Nets ushered in a back-to-back match, home to the Thunder, who ranked 14th in the West. Due to the Thunder's certain gap in hard power, the Nets have a great posture of looking down on the other side, deliberately arranging for Irving not to play, Mills and Durant plus Aldridge, Clarkston are also suspended at the same time or due to injury. Before the game even started, the Nets changed from a big three to a single giant lineup. It's just that whether Nash's overconfident state will have an impact on their game wins or losses is still to be seen through the game.
Let's take a look at the starting lineups of both sides: in addition to Harden, the Nets have Bruce Brown, Bembry, Kessler Edwards and Sharp. The Thunder, alexander, Aaron Wiggins, Josh Gidy, Dort, robinson Earl, joined in the starting line- As soon as the game started, Edwards helped the Nets open the scoring, and Harden put up the free throw line to help the Nets take an easy 4-0 lead. Dort's mid-range shot helped the Thunder score their first two-pointer. Both sides then staged unreasonable three-pointers on the outside, and the Thunder's Josh Gieddy and Dort also went to the free throw line consecutively, playing four minutes in the quarter, and the two sides drew 11-11. Alexander then picked up the basket and hit the same three-pointer in the bottom corner to reverse the score to 18-11. And his performance has not yet ended, after flying Bembry and then playing 2+1, the Thunder is directly sent to the Nets, which only have a single giant to fight, a 16-2, and the difference between the two sides has also come to 21-11. The Nets relied on Griffin on the free throw line, and Javin Carter's jump shot to slightly force the score, and the Thunder once again played an 11-2 shockwave, leading 12 points 38-26 to end the first quarter of the game. Alexander contributed a game-high 16 points in a single quarter.
In the second quarter of the game, both sides made substitution adjustments, the Nets began Harden on the outside line, but unfortunately did not hit, but after Treman grabbed the rebound and quickly advanced, the outside line was dry and jumped to hit a three-point shot, and the Thunder also further opened the score to 41-26. The difference between the two sides also reached 15 points. The Nets, who played a little lax in the first quarter, improved their enthusiasm in this quarter, and in 3 minutes, Bruce Brown's one-handed split helped the two sides to a 41-30 point difference. Millsap's layup helped the Nets narrow the gap further to 37-44. But Dort's unreasonable three-pointer was also in the middle of this quarter, and the difference between the two teams was still around 10 points. By the end of the quarter by 3:30 hours, the two teams scored 55-43. Alexander, who had rested for a while, returned to the court and assisted on Muscara's three-pointer, which was Al-Muscara's third three-pointer, and the Thunder almost hit the Nets in the first half. By the end of the first half, the Thunder were the main opponents, taking a 70-51, 19-point lead. The biggest gap between the two sides is reflected in the three-point shooting and assists, the Thunder are 15 assists for the whole team, while the Nets have only 8. The Nets' three-pointer was 33 points on 11-of-24, while the Thunder scored only 6 points on 2-of-15 shooting. In terms of individual scoring, the Thunder's Alexander and Dort have scored 21 and 19 points respectively in the first half, and Muscala also has 11 points. On the Nets side, only Harden had 1 double-double to have 16 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists.
The game entered the second half of the scramble, with the Thunder hitting consecutive inside and outside the line, further widening the point difference to 73-53. However, in the time of 2 minutes, the score on the court came to 79-57, and the Thunder had led by 22 points. Although the Nets also had consecutive scoring opportunities and narrowed the point difference to 64-79. But the Thunder's Alexander completely entered the killing mode, not only performed well in the first half, but also continuously broke through the inside line in the second half to score directly to the basket or make foul penalties. The difference between the two sides once showed a tendency to narrow in the middle stage, but the change was not very obvious. Halfway through the quarter, the score came to 85-73, the Thunder still had a 12-point lead, and David Duke once narrowed the score to 10 points. However, Bezley's continuous and efficient play, coupled with Alexander's self-shooting and self-grabbing basket hit at the same time, can also use the free throw to continue to increase the score, or let the two sides score again to 100-83, the Thunder with a 17-point lead into the fourth quarter of the decisive victory.
In the fourth quarter of the game, the Nets players played at home, or played the bottom level of the league, but played such a disparity, or a big score behind, the players were a little anxious on the field, the range of action control also began to have problems, the opening 45 seconds, led to 2 fouls. Although Harden has the opportunity to organize the offense, he still can't move the whole team alone. Although Wardworth, as well as Jevon Carter, briefly took less than 4 minutes to close the point difference to 96-104 with just 8 points. The two sides also had an 8-minute chance to decide the winner or loser, but Josh Gidi broke through the inside and three points on the outside, watching the score being pulled back away, and there were still 5 and a half minutes before the end of the game, and Alexander's ultra-far three-point shot had given the Thunder a 118-100 lead. This three-point mark is also equivalent to killing the game completely in advance. Seeing that the score came to 120-100, the two sides also began to make substitutions in advance, and the Nets conceded defeat in advance. By the end of the game, the score between the two sides was fixed at 130-109, such a big loss with a 21-point difference, and the Nets really beat themselves.
Finally, let's look at the statistics of both sides: the Thunder side of the five double-figures, of which Alexander contributed 33 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists, Dort also had 27 points, Josh Gidi had 17 points, 3 rebounds and 7 assists, and Bezley and Muslaca contributed 16 points and 14 points, respectively. On the Nets side, Harden had 26 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists, Thomas contributed 21 points, and Duke and Brown scored 11 and 10 points, respectively.