With 55 points and eight three-pointers, Kevin Durant played the strongest offensive performance of his career, setting two new personal records in one game, but not returning to a much-needed victory.
After today's 115-122 away loss to the Hawks, the Nets' record fell to 40-38, widening the gap with the raptors in the sixth place in the East to 5.5 wins, officially determining that there is no place in the top six of the division, and can only compete for a playoff spot through the playoffs.
Not only that, because of the loss of this "card battle", the Nets will also send direct competitors to the Hawks to eighth in the East, while they themselves have slipped two places in a row to tenth. If the regular season ends today, they will face the tough situation of winning two consecutive play-offs to qualify.
On March 26, when Kyrie Irving was finally allowed to play at home, Durant excitedly said in an interview: "It's great that he's back, looking forward to a strong end to the season, and it's great that what has been hanging over us for a whole year is finally over." ”
At the time of the remarks, Durant clearly believed that with Irving's return, his team would immediately clear the haze and return to the ranks of championship contenders. As it turned out, he might have been happy too soon.
Since Irving officially returned to full-time status, the Nets have played a total of 4 games today, against the Hornets, Pistons, Bucks and Hawks, of which the Hornets and Eagles are direct competitors in the playoffs, the Bucks are the playoff rivals, only the Pistons have no desire to be slaughtered, and as a result, the Nets only won against the Pistons. This is clearly not the "strong ending" that Durant is looking forward to.
Today's game, because it is directly related to the playoff rankings, the importance is self-evident (as for escaping the playoffs, that is only a theoretical hope), so KD "came to death" from the beginning, two consecutive three-point shots, plus a three-point foul, and took 9 points to lead the team to a perfect start of 11-2.
In the following game, KD also continued his fiery feel, 25 points at the end of the half, 19 points in the third quarter, including two consecutive 2+1s in 7 seconds, and even a three-point shot that was transported to the top of the three-point arc during the semi-conversion process and directly rode a horse archery, which could also be accurately hit, completely depending on the defense as nothing!
By the decisive moment of the final quarter, although the Hawks even used the advance bag clip on KD, he still scored 11 points in a single quarter, setting a new career scoring record. Prior to that, KD scored 54 points against the Warriors on January 18, 2014, leading the Thunder to a 127-121 victory over the Splash Brothers. Today, the night of his career ended in failure.
This battle has bloodily presented the dilemma faced by the Nets to the world: they have Durant, who is at the best of his career, but a Durant can't cover up all the problems. Behind the surface leveling of Irving's unbanned ban, this team does not know how many "landmines" are still buried in the shadows.
The Nets' defense remains useless. Although Nash intended to improve the team's defense this season, the results still looked less than ideal. In their last four games, they have conceded an average of 121 points per game, and even against the Lotto team Pistons, they have been bombarded by their opponents with 123 points, so there is still suspense until the last minute of the game.
Facing the Hawks today, even if one of the top three scorers could not play (John Collins) and the other two struggled (Trae Young and Bogdanovic combined 13 of 31 today), the Nets still let the opponent cut 122 points, including 37 points in the second quarter, and the situation was ruined.
The arrival of Andre Drummond seems to have made up for the Nets' internal emptiness, but the truth is that Drummond can be extremely active in chasing the outside line to defend Trae Young, but he will also be easily deceived by Capela under the basket to complete the dunk score. That's why he grabbed 13 rebounds in 18 minutes but couldn't get more playing time.
The Nets' offense is still a singles. The technical attributes of the big three determine that the Nets' offense mainly relies on individual singles to launch, last season's good villains and the golden combination of Harden and D'Antoni, simple blocking and dismantling can also conjure up some tricks, and with the departure of D'Antoni and Harden, the Nets' offense has completely become KD, Irving, you sing I appeared in the combination of boxing mode, as for others, you can only pull aside to see if there is a chance to catch the ball in an empty position.
This is also the biggest shortcoming of Owen as a point guard, in essence, he is also a scorer, and pass assists are a passive choice after really not finding the angle of the shot. Although Durant has increased his strategy this season, there is still a certain distance from the "organizational forward". When both men are in full swing, it's really hard to stop, but once there's a little mute, the Nets offense no longer has an advantage.
The Nets' offense lacks organization, and Nash is directly responsible, but he also has his frustrations. In addition to the technical limitations of the two cores of Irving and Durant, because of repeated injuries, this team has always been difficult to really complete the run-in.
In the first 35 games of the season, Irving has been "banned in disguise" by the team, and later allowed to return to the team, still only to play away, until he really returns to full-time status, there are only two weeks left before the end of the regular season.
Durant has also been plagued by injuries, with 21 games in one break. During this period, Harden and Irving took turns to lead the team, and even some games, and their offensive core was Seth Curry, who had just joined the team.
Speaking of Curry, we have to talk about the big deal before the deadline. In theory, the Nets replaced their organizational guard in the middle of the season, and it is self-evident how much this will affect a team's offense, and what is more, ben Simmons, who has not made an appearance until today, is also in great doubt about whether he can return this season.
Even Curry, who has recently suffered from an ankle injury, has missed four games since March 14, including today's game against the Hawks. According to his own description, this injury probably needed a month of rest to fully recover, and the current situation would not give him such an opportunity.
By the way, Bruce Brown and Goran Dragic also missed games today because of the flu and the new crown, respectively. Both players have been the Nets' main rotation players in the recent past, and while their absence may not be long, these surprises are still worse for the Nets.
Back to Irving, all the Nets' struggles this season can be said to have started from him, and until the end, he did not choose to compromise. The change in New York's epidemic prevention policy has rescued this crisis brewed by Irving, and you don't know when new problems will arise with his elusive personality.
For example, at this moment, Owen announced that he had officially entered the month of Ramadan. According to religious custom, Irving did not eat every day from sunrise to sunset for the next month, which also raised concerns about his game status.
Whether Ramadan will affect the player's on-field performance, there is no definite answer to this question, although from a scientific point of view, the lack of diet will inevitably have a negative impact on physical function, but after all, there have been counterexamples of Olajuwon. Judging only by Irving's on-field performance today, he has 31 points and six assists, but only shot 12 goals in 32 shots, and his 37.5% shooting rate is far below his season average (47.4%).
And if the Nets continue to use Durant so harshly, his health is also worrying. Durant has been in hot form this season, and today he has set a number of career records, but don't forget that he is 33 years old, has experienced a devastating injury to Achilles tendon rupture, and has also had a long-term injury suspension in the last two seasons.
There are reports that Durant has recently been suffering from an ankle injury, and today's game is also with an injury, and in the game, he was almost "padded" by the opponent, making the hearts of all Nets fans mention the throat eye. Luckily, Durant wasn't injured and played until the end of the game, without a single second of rest in the second half.
Given Durant's age, injury history, and his game burden, the Nets are supposed to create some breaks before the playoffs start, but the current situation doesn't seem to allow the team to do so. And this is bound to become the biggest hidden danger of the Nets, because once there is no KD, they are nothing.
Nets reporter Billy Reinhardt tweeted before today's game, describing the team's current situation as "limping toward the finish line."
The question is, it's still only the preliminary stage, and when the "last shot" really starts, the Nets are full of Ray, how far can they run?