On January 16, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, the Nets sat at home to meet the Pelicans, the Nets in the first half of the 28 points lead, but Durant left the court in the middle of the second quarter injured. The Pelicans chased back some points in the second half, and the Nets still beat the Pelicans 120-105 to win their 27th game of the season. In the case of Durant's injury, Harden led the team to play excellent statistics and proved his ability to lead the team.
The Nets are temporarily ranked No. 3 in the East, but have not performed well in recent times, losing 6 of their last nine games, and the last game was a fiasco to the weak team Thunder. The Pelicans have been terrible this season, ranking fourth from the bottom in the West, but have just won two straight.
Irving is absent from this campaign, and Durant and Harden lead the team with a double core. The Nets took the lead as soon as they came up, the Pelicans were able to barely bite the score in the first half of the quarter, and the Nets quickly pulled away the point difference, With Durant scoring 12 points in a single quarter and the Nets taking a 10-point advantage in the first quarter. The Nets continued to extend their advantage in the second quarter, with Harden feeding his teammates back-to-back, and the point difference soon reached more than 20 points.
In the middle of the quarter, Brown hit Durant's knee while falling, and then limped off the field to make sure he wouldn't return, and Durant's injury was worrying. Durant went down, the Nets continued to suppress the opponent, leading by 30 points at the most in the halftime, the HalfTime Nets have led by 28 points, completely blowing the opponent, the Nets had 5 people in the first half to score in double figures, Harden gave 11 assists at halftime.
The Pelicans began chasing points in the third quarter, and they clamped down on Harden on the defensive end, and the Nets' offense came to a standstill as the Pelicans hit a 14-2 surge that narrowed the gap to 16 points. The Nets stopped the decline in time, Harden was still in good shape, leading the Nets to retain the advantage, and the Nets still maintained an 18-point lead at the end of the third quarter.
In the final quarter, although the Pelicans tried hard to chase points, it was difficult to narrow the point difference, and the Nets led all the way, and finally defeated the Pelicans to win their 27th victory of the season and consolidate the top 3 in the East. In the case of Durant's early injury, Harden carried the team, sending a quasi-triple-double with 27 points, 15 assists and 8 rebounds, with a plus-minus of +21 team-high, and the fly in the ointment was 6 mistakes.
Under Harden's tandem, the Nets had 6 people scoring in double figures, 3 people scoring more than 20 points, more points blossoming, Thomas on the bench got 20 points, Edwards and Sharp also frequently ate Harden's feeding cake, of which Sharp scored a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, Harden showed his ability to lead the team.