In a regular season game that ended this morning, the Nets lost 125-136 to the Timberwolves in the Target Center, missing three consecutive wins and giving up the first place in the East.
With Durant sidelined, Irving and Harden carried the Nets' offensive banner. The former was in full swing, scoring 30 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists on 11-of-20 shooting; while the latter was in a slump, and throughout the game, Harden played 35 minutes, hitting only 4 of the 13 shots and scoring only 13 points, although he delivered 13 assists, but also made as many as 6 mistakes. The data shows that when Harden was on the floor, the Nets lost 14 points to the opponent, and his plus-minus was only better than Mills (-18) among the starting five players.
After the defeat, the Nets should reflect on the course of the game and sum up the lessons, who knows that the team has pointed the finger at the referee on duty.
The first to challenge the referee was Harden, who said in an interview with the media that he had suffered a different treatment from the referee, and some Timberwolves players ignored his violations by the referees; Irving followed close behind, saying that they only wanted to have the same decision as the opponent, but some of Harden's violated referees turned a blind eye, and when the reporter wanted Irving to discuss the issue in depth, Irving chose to shut up because he did not want to be fined by the league; at this moment, head coach Nash jumped out, he said that there were multiple indications, Harden is seen as a poster child for the league's new rules...
In fact, judging from the course of the game, the Nets did not lose this game unjustly. First of all, they themselves lack major generals, Durant and Clarkston are absent due to injury, and the other side is basically all healthy. Secondly, while Irving was struggling to support, the Timberwolves' offense was multi-point blossoming, Russell scored 23 points and 10 assists on 7-of-13 shooting, Edwards also scored 25 points and 4 assists on 8-of-17 shooting, and Towns contributed 23 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.
Some people may focus on the 15-31 total of free throws, but in fact this is not surprising. The Timberwolves have a super interior line like Downs, while the Nets only have the elderly Aldridge and griffin who has suffered a major injury; the weakness of the inside line also causes Russell and Edwards to frequently attack the Nets to win fouls and make free throws; on the contrary, Harden and Irving want to attack the inside line, they have to face elders such as Towns, McDaniels, and Reid, and the difficulty of ending can be seen.
In fact, Harden's poor form is not only reflected in today's game against the Timberwolves, his state has been ups and downs since the new season, and has been controversial; the general trend is that as long as the referee gives the whistle, his game data is beautiful, and once the referee does not give the whistle, the game is quite crotch-pulling.
Although Nash has said that Harden has been targeted by the new rules of the league, the data shows that He has still scored 8.1 free throws this season, ranking third in the league, in front of him are 10.8 times for Alphabet Brother and Embiid 10.6 times. You know, these two are both inside players and have a natural advantage in creating fouls. In other words, after half a day of arguing, Harden is still the league's most free throw-free throws.
So should the former first quarterback reflect on himself? After all, competitive sports, you can't bring an exclusive referee around, keep blowing free throws for you!