After a strong three-game winning streak, the Nets, ranked seventh in the East, sat at home and ushered in back-to-back battles, during the nine-game losing streak, the Thirteenth Pacers in the East.
On the Nets side, Seth Curry was sidelined due to injury, and Edwards entered the starting lineup to try to bring more help to Irving + Durant, leading the team to defend the home and win four consecutive games.
On the other hand, the Pacers, facing the final battle of the regular season, whether the Pacers of this campaign can end the losing streak on the road will undoubtedly face a huge challenge!
However, after four quarters of fighting, with the excellent play of Irving + Bruce Brown, the Nets, who played at home, completely suppressed the Pacers in the first half and achieved a huge advantage of 16 points.
Although after returning from the second half, Brisette + Halliburton felt hot in the third quarter and led the Pacers to a 17-0 counterattack frenzy, successfully narrowing the point difference to single digits and preserving the suspense of the game.
But in the last quarter of the decisive moment, Irving ushered in the outbreak, the Nets took the opportunity to establish an 8-point lead, and the Pacers repeatedly failed to hit, only to lose the shot.
The Nets, who finally withstood the pressure, also beat the Pacers 134-126 at home, successfully winning four consecutive games while also giving the rival Pacers 10 consecutive losses!
In this game at home, the Nets can be described as all soldiers, playing a team performance of six people scoring in double figures and three people with 20+ to complete the finale and end the regular season competition.
In the case of Bruce Brown + Edwards + Clarkston and other main players, each performing their duties, the two major players Durant + Irving, and the play of Tall Drummond are particularly critical!
In this game, although Durant lost the crosshairs on 6-of-6 three-pointers from the outside, he dared to fight and handed over a triple-double performance of 20 points + 10 rebounds + 16 assists + 1 steal.
It is worth mentioning that Durant sent 16 assists in this campaign, which not only revitalized the Nets' entire team's offense, but also set a new record for the number of assists in a single game of his personal career!
In addition, as the core defender of the team, Irving's play in this game is also a great achievement.
In this campaign, Irving was full of firepower, shooting four three-pointers on 15-of-20 shooting, a game-high 35 points, plus 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 steal.
Among them, his heroic performance of scoring 13 points on 5 shots in the last quarter was almost single-handed, ending the Pacers' idea of trying to fight back, and successfully affected the trend of the game!
Of course, the Nets were able to beat the Pacers in this game, and the performance of Drummond, the team's inner pillar, also played a crucial role.
Drummond was very efficient in this game, starting 19 minutes, 9 shots contributed 20 points + 13 rebounds + 2 blocks of the two double performance, it can be said that with a very efficient personal performance, dominated the offensive and defensive ends of the interior line!
More importantly, after winning four consecutive games against the Pacers in this game, the Nets' regular season record has also improved to 44 wins and 38 losses, officially locking in the seventh place in the East.
At the same time, after the first battle, the teams in the Eastern Play-off Zone were also released, namely: East Seven Nets, East Eight Cavaliers, East Nine Eagles and East Ten Hornets!
For the Nets, thanks to the win in this game, the team ranking remains seventh in the East, and the Nets also gain the advantage of home games in the playoffs against the Cavaliers.
Obviously, for this Nets team that has not been easy along the way, the nets' prospects and situation are also very good in terms of impacting the playoffs!
On the other hand, on the Side of the Pacers, the team reversed the defeat in this game and finally swallowed a 10-game losing streak, which is obviously regrettable.
But rationally speaking, for the Pacers, this game, the team is not completely without highlights!
After all, this game against the powerful Nets, the three-man master Hilde + Harry Burton + Brisette play, is indeed remarkable.
For the Pacers, although the team's record this season is not satisfactory, the emergence of Hield + Halliburton + Brisette, to a certain extent, is indeed a big gain for the Pacers!