The NBA regular season continued, with the East facing a strong and weak confrontation, and the Nets traveled to challenge the Wizards on the road.
Although the lineup is a strong and weak confrontation, in fact, the Nets' current form and immediate combat power are not stronger than the Wizards, and they only suffered a 9-game losing streak before the game began, and sent Harden away.
The Wizards, as the big dark horse in the early days of the Eastern Conference, are also in poor shape, having fallen to 11th in the East before the start of the game, and also completed a number of trades before the deadline, cleaning up players such as Dinwiddie.
As soon as the game began, the two teams that were deeply involved in trade rumors were obviously affected to a certain extent, and they could not open the situation on the offensive end.
As Thomas and Griffin found form first, the Nets managed to gain an advantage in the first quarter, although the Wizards briefly overtook the lead under Kuzma and others.
At the end of the first quarter, with consecutive points from inside Sharp and Johnson, the Nets regained their advantage and ended the first quarter with a three-point lead.
In the second quarter, the Nets continued the hot state of the first quarter, and at one point quickly expanded the point difference with internal and external connections.
But the Wizards responded quickly, and under the leadership of Kuzma, Avdia and others, the Wizards started from the outside and hit three-pointers in succession, constantly clinging to the score.
Even though Irving was in hot form and scored 17 points at halftime, he still couldn't pull off the score, but the Wizards didn't finish the rebound, and still trailed by 4 points at the end of the half.
Easy to fight again, the Nets in the offensive end of the state of decline seriously, a single quarter only scored 19 points, while the Wizards played better and better, single quarter blast 31 points, successfully completed the reversal, with an 8-point lead into the final quarter.
In the final quarter of the competition, the Nets have been in a state of catching up, helpless is Irving alone, the whole team only Owen is trustworthy, even so, with Irving's impact, the Nets at a critical moment or narrowed the point difference to only 1 point.
But in the final moments, the Wizards adopted a bag-and-clip strategy, and Irving, who was sandwiched by three people, could only pass the ball, and with Thomas missing three points, the Nets finally lost to the Wizards 112-113.
Throughout the game, the Wizards played very good team basketball, with seven members of the team scoring in double figures, of which Kuzma handed over a triple-double of 15 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.
In addition, Neto had 21 points and six assists, Pope 13 points and five rebounds, Bryant 13 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists, Avdia 13 points and 4 rebounds, Hamura 12 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, and Gill 15 points and 2 rebounds.
Despite Beal's injury problems, the Wizards still have hope of hitting the playoff playoffs with a succession of trade deadlines, and the team is currently ranked 11th in the East, one win away from the Eagles in front of them.
On the other hand, the Nets, Irving bombed 31 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists, but still could not prevent the team from suffering 10 consecutive losses.
From the title race at the beginning of the season, to the current eighth in the East, the big three completely separated, Harden forced the palace to leave, the Nets can be described as a good card, play a rare mess.
In the final analysis, if Irving chooses to be vaccinated at the beginning of the season, then the Nets will most likely still be in the First Place in the East.
Unfortunately, Irving was reluctant to get vaccinated, and the Nets management was forced to make a compromise and let him return as a part-time player.
It is also because Irving has a game, and this way of playing in each game completely exposes Nash's tactical system of relying solely on stars, once caught in the storm of dismissal, forced to use Durant and Harden with high intensity, which eventually led to the former suffering from injuries, and the latter forcing the palace to leave the team.
Faced with such a situation, Durant, who was absent due to injury, was also photographed covering his mouth and pondering on the sidelines, and it was not clear what Durant and the Nets management were thinking.