Desperate Durant...
At 55 points, at the age of 33, Kevin Durant set a new scoring record for his career, but even so, he still could not help the Nets win the card battle with the Hawks, and after last season's playoffs, Durant once again composed a heroic song.
28 shots 19, three-pointers 10 shots 8, 8 three-pointers to tie the personal career record, the third time in the season 50+, becoming the NBA history of the 33+33+ team in a single season the most one, obviously you can hardly ask Durant for more on such a night, in the case of the team's long game behind, under the opponent's strict defense, Durant still played a very efficient performance, looking at the entire league, the players who can do this are undoubtedly the few, But compared to other players who can do this, Durant's teammate support is undoubtedly relatively limited.
In this game, the 9 players in the netball net, only two scored double figures, in addition to Durant's 55 points, Irving cut 31 points, scoring a lot, but from the efficiency point of view, Irving's performance on the field was not outstanding, he shot only 12 of 32 shots, in addition to three-pointers, Irving shot 5 of 18, far below his due level, and in addition to Irving, the rest of the nets in this game can only be described as bad, because Curry Jr. is absent from the starting Mills, 7 shots 0 of the whole game, 5 of 5 three-pointers, Thomas, who took on the role of Mills' bench, shot 1 of 7 from the field, and the remaining bench players, Griffin 0 points, Johnson 3 points, Clarkston 4 points, and the Hawks all-out bench, the Nets exposed a significant gap.
It can be said that if it were not for the incomparable Durant, the Nets would have lost such a card battle long ago, and for a team that wants to impact the championship this season, it has encountered such a serious problem of relying on Durant at the end of the season, which obviously needs to be paid enough attention by the team.
'Against us, most of the team's defensive strategy is obvious, which is to block me and Durant, we didn't realize that he got 55 points, we have to give him less pressure, the situation is very urgent for us now, we have to put on the body armor again, get the weapons ready, and go to the battlefield, we don't have much time to waste. Irving said after the game about Durant scoring 55 points and still losing.
After losing to the Hawks, the Nets' ranking has slipped from the previous 8th to 10th, and because they are 5 wins behind the 6th Bulls, the Nets have decided to participate in this year's playoffs, for the current Nets, what kind of position is in the playoffs, is the top half of the 7-8 or the top half of the 9-10 place, is the only thing they can control, once the final only end with the current 10th place in the East, the Nets don't say to compete for the championship, Whether they can pass the playoffs has to be marked with a huge question mark, not only because the 10th place they need to play consecutive away games at the beginning of the playoffs, but also from the past two direct conversations with the Hornets and Eagles, the Nets, who are almost fully played, really have no advantage over their opponents.
'We all know we can't make excuses after losing, but we've had too many injuries this season. Nets coach Steve Nash said after the game that injuries are indeed a problem for the Nets this season, even if not counting Irving, who was forced to miss the game because of no vaccination, the Nets are still a long-term lack of major generals this season, Harris was injured early and eventually reimbursed for the season, the attendance of Curry Jr., Aldridge and others is not high, but injuries are obviously not the most important reason for the Nets' poor performance so far, compared with their opponents, the Eagles are also facing a lot of injury problems this season. The team's main striker Collins has been absent for a long time, and the Hornets have been missing the main small forward Gordon Hayward for the vast majority of the time.
Fans in the ridicule of a team that frequently loses, often say that this team has two problems, one is not offensive, the other is not defensive, for the current Nets, they do have two straightforward problems, first of all, offense, the Nets, which has one of the best scorers in NBA history, but in many cases rely too much on Durant, originally Irving is the player who can share the huge offensive pressure on Durant, this season he also had a good performance, but since returning to full-time status, Irving's state is obviously refined, against the Heat, he got 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting, against the Hornets, he scored 16 points on 6-of-22 shooting, and then in the past 3 games, Irving scored 24 points, 25 points and 31 points respectively, scoring a lot, but the efficiency is still bad, the highest one is only 40.9%, in other words, in the 5 games after returning to full-time, Irving has not been able to shoot 50% of the offensive performance, you know, when Irving was on the floor this season, The Nets' offensive efficiency was a staggering 119.3, but the Nets' offensive performance was no longer as good as before when Irving was on the floor recently.
When Irving can't perform well enough on the offensive end, when other players on the Nets' outside line can't shoot three-pointers, it eventually leads durant to repeatedly show his housekeeping skills and lead the team to support.
On the defensive end, the Nets' problems are equally serious, even more obvious, this game the Hawks cut 122 points, this is the fourth consecutive game for the Nets to let the opponent get at least 119 points, the Hawks' total shooting rate in this game is actually only 41.9%, the sports game goals are only 36, 6 less than the Nets, but they have as many as 49 free throw opportunities, 30 more than the Nets, when such a significant difference in free throws appears, fans often feel controversial about the referee's decision. But Durant understands this, he believes that the Hawks free throws 49 times because the team really fouled, and the referee is not much of a problem, indeed, this game can see that the Hawks' number of free throws is because they can easily break through the nets' first layer of defense, and then let the Nets pay a painful price in the defense and other links.
The offense relies too much on Durant, the defensive end can not limit the opponent, such a problematic Net, perhaps the current 10th place in the East is the most real portrayal of their strength, but having a superstar like Durant makes the outside world look too high on them.
On January 22 this year, when the Nets beat the Spurs 117-102 on the road, they once came to no. 1 in the East, but now the team has slipped to no. 10 in the East, from the beginning of the season to have the Big Three, but now gradually become Durant's team, the Nets championship? Let's think about how to break through the playoffs first, as Irving said, there is not much time left for the Nets.
Wen | Li Hui
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