If the Celtics and the Nets' series first game, the tragic Nets can also be blamed on the lack of a little luck, then the end of the second game only scored 17 points, tragically reversed by the Green Army, the main Durant and Irving can not be blamed.
In this campaign, Bruce Brown fulfilled the promise of "attacking recklessly against the Green Army inside line without Rowe Town's guard" before the start of the series, scoring 23 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, and the performance of "Le Brown" can be called the limelight. In addition, Curry Jr. and Dragic also stood up to score 16 and 18 points respectively. Unfortunately, the two main players collectively pulled their crotches, wasting such a perfect performance of the role players.
Irving only scored 10 points in this campaign, and his offensive efficiency was only 4 of 13 shots, which showed that his body was not in the best condition during the game. One detail explains why Uncle Drew was so weak: With 3 minutes left in the first quarter, Irving was replaced, the assistant coach on the sidelines pointed to his watch to signal that the sun had set, and the former went straight back to the locker room to start eating – because it was Ramadan, Irving, a Muslim, could only eat after sunset. Returning to the court moments later, Owen was still holding a banana in his hand, apparently hungry for a day and not being able to fully meet his physical needs with water and food in the dressing room alone.
Just think, without even eating enough, how can you have the strength to deal with the highest level of playoff level games in the highest level NBA on the planet? The Green Army is also "taking advantage of your illness and wanting your life", deliberately increasing the physical confrontation, so that Owen's technical movements have been deformed when many shots, and this situation also wants to reproduce the performance of the last 39 points is tantamount to a fool's dream.
Generally speaking, one of the Two Duou can always stand up and save the team, but in this game, the two are lost at the same time. Durant's efficiency in this campaign is even more absurd, only hitting 4 goals in 17 shots, cutting 27 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists, if it were not for 20 opportunities to stand on the free throw line, I really don't know how close the final data column would be frozen. Du Xiaoshuai must have eaten enough, so why is his performance so sluggish? We got a glimpse into it in KD's post-match interview.
Durant told reporters: "No matter where I am, there will always be 2-3 people chasing and blocking me. I saw that Al-Horford would sometimes even let go of his targets and run straight to me to interfere with me. Of course, that's the essence of the playoffs. I'm going to play a little more patiently, sometimes a little bit faster. For Durant's defensive strategy, Green Army coach Uduka is very clear, as long as you take the ball must be packed, two people are not enough to three people, the bet is that Durant's ability to play the ball is not enough to support him when he encounters the bag clip to quickly distribute the ball to teammates in the empty position.
Obviously, Uduka was right, Durant shot 0 of 10 in the second half, facing the care of "left and right for men" and "two men in and out", KD could not easily send the ball into the basket as usual, so many bags only sent 5 assists, enough to explain the problem. Coupled with Irving, who was inaccurate without eating enough to be on the intensity, the Nets of this game were completely pinched! The game was also the first time in 55 games between Durant and Irving that both shot less than 33 percent from the field. This data can clearly feel why the Nets failed, the most dependent unsolvable single-player duo is limited, then the Nets have no fundamentals to win.
In fact, Tatum's performance in this campaign was not satisfactory, only 5 of 16 shots, but in the crucial fourth quarter he stood up again, calm throwing and murderous dry pulling back three points to help the team pull the point difference to double digits in one fell swoop, completely laying the victory, but also completely pulling himself out of the post-game criticism venue.
With such a performance and a big score, the pressure completely came to the Side of the Nets. The Greens are gaining momentum and returning to the Home Barclays Center, but if the Nets lose one more game, they can announce in advance that their journey of the season is over. Under heavy pressure, Nets coach Steve Nash faces a huge test, how to help Durant break the layers of cages in front of him? Is there a way for Irving to focus on the game itself, so that he can eat enough and stop worrying about interacting with the fans? For Tatum, does the Nets have enough defensive resources to limit it? Nash really had to pay attention.