After a short wait, the NBA playoffs officially began, with the Seventh-place Nets in the East sitting at home to host the Eighth Cavaliers.
According to the rules of the play-offs, the two teams will win and lose, and the winner will take the seventh place directly into the playoffs, and will play a seven-game series with the Green Army.
The losing side, also not out, but need to wait for the winner between the Hornets and the Hawks, and then play this winner, and the winning side wins the eighth place in the East and the heat in the first round against the first place in the East.
While the first round against the Heat was obviously easier than against the Green Army, the play-offs were a one-size-fits-all game, and no team wanted to win the game as much as possible.
So, as soon as the game began, the Nets opened up, first playing a perfect 4-0 start, and then suppressing the Cavaliers, establishing a double-digit lead in one go.
To make matters worse, the Cavaliers never responded, which left the Nets open completely at the end of the quarter, hitting three points in succession from the outside and taking a huge 20-point lead by the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Nets' feel declined, and the Cavaliers continued to eat into the point difference, and successfully forced the point difference to within 15 points in the first half of the quarter.
At one point at the end of the quarter, the Cavaliers forced the point difference to 11 points, but Irving continued his magical performance, maintaining 100% shooting in the first half, and playing the last three consecutive rounds to help the team enter the halftime with a 14-point lead.
Easy to fight again, the Nets at the beginning of the quarter to control the situation, once again to pull the point difference to 20 points outside, but as Irving came off, the Nets had problems handling the ball, a series of mistakes, the Cavaliers also seized the opportunity, the third quarter of the battle, the Cavaliers will narrow the point difference to 12 points.
Entering the final quarter of the scramble, the Cavaliers continued the fiery state of the late third quarter, quickly forcing the point difference to single digits, and at one point the point difference was only 6 points.
Fortunately, Durant and Irving stood up in time and kept hitting key balls to help the team maintain the lead.
But the Cavaliers still did not give up, under the leadership of Garland, has been trying to complete the counter-overtaking, helpless is the Nets firmly in control of the situation, no problems, and finally in the free throw war to maintain a steady victory, 115-108 to defeat the Cavaliers, determined to enter the playoffs with the seventh position in the East.
Throughout the game, the Cavaliers, although they lost the game, have caused enough trouble for the Nets.
Helplessly, the absence of the team's inner core Allen led to a significant decline in the team's ability at both ends of the attack and defense, and finally helpless to lose the game.
Even so, the core of the backcourt Garland is still remarkable, bombarding 34 points, 5 assists and 2 steals, in addition, Le Ver 12 points, Markkanen 13 points, Mobly 19 points, Lefour 14 points and 13 rebounds.
On the other hand, on the Nets side, the two core Durant and Irving handed over impressive performances, scoring 59 points, 23 assists and 8 rebounds on the whole occasion.
Among them, Irving showed the big heart ability of key games, hitting all the first 12 shots, shooting 12 of 15 from the field, and bombing down 34 points, 3 rebounds and 12 assists.
Durant also did not hesitate to let go, in the first half of the green leaf, the second half of the critical moment stood up, 9 of 16 shooting, got 25 points, 5 rebounds and 11 assists.
In addition, Brown had 18 points and 9 rebounds, Drummond 16 points and 8 rebounds, and Clarkston 13 points and 9 rebounds.
Although the Nets exposed certain problems during the game, due to the presence of Irving and Durant, the Nets still look like they are still the favorites for the championship.
Considering that the Green Army's performance this season is also very good, the match between the two teams in the first round is destined to be a round of pin-point competition against Mai Mang.