The NBA regular season continued, with an important card game in the East, with the Hawks sitting at home to take on the Nets.
After Irving decided to return full-time, the team lost the rhythm, Irving's physical problems were exposed, and before the game began, Irving entered the middle of Ramadan, fasting (no food and drink) every day from 3 to 16 a.m.
With just 1 win and 2 losses in the last three games, the Nets have already tied the Record with the Hawks and are only 0.5 wins ahead of the Hornets, so both teams want to win this crucial game.
As soon as the game began, the Nets showed their determination to win, and under the leadership of Durant and Drummond, they made a perfect 5-0 start and established an early lead.
Since then, Durant and Irving have continued to exert their strength, and the Nets have established a double-digit lead at the beginning of the quarter, but the team is dumb at the end of the quarter, and the Eagles have forced the point difference to only 2 points left.
In the second quarter, the Eagles continued to exert their strength, successfully completed the rebound with 8 minutes left in the second quarter, and blossomed at multiple points to establish a double-digit lead, and at the end of the half, the Eagles not only filled the point difference, but also held a huge lead of 15 points with accurate outside projection.
Easy to fight again, Durant continued to exert force, almost single-handedly carrying the team forward, the point difference was forced to close to single digits many times, but the Nets have never been able to complete the counterattack.
With Trae Young's play at the end of the quarter, the Eagles still have a seven-point lead at the end of the third quarter.
Entering the final quarter of the scramble, the point difference was once again pulled to double digits, but with Durant's exaggerated scoring efficiency, the Nets once forced the point difference to only 3 points, helplessly, the team always at a critical moment, unable to limit the opponent on the defensive end, and finally the team lost to the Hawks 115-122, losing this key card battle.
Throughout the game, the Hawks Trae Young was not in good shape, but it was still trustworthy at key moments, and the whole game bombed 36 points, 6 rebounds and 10 assists.
In addition, the Hawks showed a multi-point advantage, with Hunter delivering 15 points and 10 rebounds, Roiwu 11 points and 4 rebounds and Gallinari 15 points.
Although only four people scored in double figures, Capela handed over 9 points and 12 rebounds, Bogda 8 points, Okonwu 6 points and 6 rebounds, Wright 9 points, Lou Wei 8 points, and the players who came on the stage all contributed well.
On the other hand, the nets, the team's two cores, Durant and Irving, almost got nearly 80% of the team's points.
Durant played 42 minutes and 19 seconds, without a break in the entire second half, shooting 19 of 28, with extremely exaggerated efficiency, bombing 55 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists.
The 55 points set a new single-game scoring record for Durant this season, and also made Durant and Irving the third pair of teammates in league history to score 55+ points in the same season, the previous two times west and Baylor in the 61-62 season, and Bird and McHale in the 84-85 season.
Helplessly, Durant's performance is still unable to save Irving, and Irving shot only 12 of 32 in the whole game, handed over 32 points and 6 assists, and hit iron in key moments.
It is worth mentioning that before the start of this game, Owen announced that Ramadan has officially arrived, and he will not eat until sunset (3 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
This means that Irving is hungry in an ultra-high-intensity basketball game, and it is not difficult to understand why he is in such a poor state, and the scene also filmed Irving choosing to eat fruit to replenish his strength during the suspension.
After losing this crucial card game, the Nets' ranking was directly overtaken by the Hawks, and the Hawks shrugged off the Nets by one win.
At the same time, the Nets' record fell to the same as the Hornets, because so far this season, the Hornets dominated the two teams in the process of meeting 2 wins and 1 loss, and the Nets' ranking directly fell to the tenth place in the East.
With four games left in the regular season, it's not easy for the Nets to get back to the top eight, which means the Nets will most likely have to play two consecutive playoff games to earn a playoff spot.