Let's talk about why Durant can't break the Celtics' defense.
G1G2, the Nets have seen very clearly, the Celtics will be Durant into the three-point line after the nearby troops block his breakthrough route, Durant into the three-point line can not play. Bruce Brown was put on a hard play, and the Green Army meant to have Durant give the ball to Brown and see what brown could do. G2, Brown 23 points, 8 of 12, 3 of 4 three-pointers, 4 assists and 1 turnover, from a response point of view, Brown did a good job. But to beat the Greens, it wasn't enough, Durant himself was too inefficient to score goals in athletic warfare, and Irving G2 had no presence.
Nash said he devised 13 tactics for Durant to crack the Celtics defense at G3. In fact, there is no need to look at what Nash's 13 sets of tactics are, and it is guessed that Nash's intention is to let Durant catch the ball at the dessert position and directly enter the attack situation. If you can't break the "pinch" with the ball (Kai is not a direct pinch, the effect is the same), either look for the quality of the ball carrier, or find the team space problem, the Nets have problems in both aspects, then you need to find a way from the no-ball direction - don't hold the ball to dessert, go without the ball, and then pass the ball to you.
Remember what hardened Harden meant to Embiid? It is difficult for the emperor to break the clip with the ball, and he needs to have a defender to let him catch the ball at the dessert position, reducing the number of links in the pinch with the ball.
The Nets were going to do the same thing, nash menu out, and then found out that no one was going to play the role of Harden to the Emperor — good guys, where's Harden? - Brown plays this role, the general game may work, but the opponent is the Celtics, and the Celtic coach is Uduka, Uduka formulated the G1G2 anti-Durant plan, how to break his heart will not know? How Nash would break, Uduka could easily guess.
The way to break the ball is also very simple - just prevent you from catching the ball. In this game, players such as Tatum and Brown are desperately trying to fight behind Durant, just waiting for you to catch the ball and stab behind you, destroying your rhythm of receiving the ball. Tatum made 6 steals, Brown 5, Durant 5, and that's a lot of that. The Green Army broke your ball, what are the Nets going to do?
You say Brown, even Dragic gives the ball is not of high quality, but Durant will not stay in place in the next set, and he has not done a wide range of running to catch the ball, these problems exist. Durant, who has been seriously injured, in such a huge consumption of the game, can not be as low as in the past, running without the ball to break the clip, it is normal. But if he can't break the Green Army defense with the ball and no ball, what will the Nets attack?
In this game, the Nets supporting role continued the strength of G2, greatly rewarding durant's strict defense, Brown 26 points, Curry, Mills, Griffin a total of 8 three-pointers, the whole team grabbed 12 frontcourt rebounds, in the supporting role projection response and front board rate, once again did not lose the Green Army, enough interesting. However, these are all that the Green Army can bear, the Nets themselves can not defend, only rely on the offensive play of the supporting roles can not win the ball, supporting roles, Du, Ou, two of the three groups can play to win, and G3 and G2, Du Ou's output did not play out.
Irving has the ability to protect the ball and break through under the strict defense of the Green Army, his dribbling skills are historical, but G1 releases the magic, G3 has a greater sense of existence than G2, defense, assists, shooting efficiency is still low. Durant has become a point of containment, whether it is positioned as an "organizational striker" or a "low-post interior line" that requires a defender to play, these two positionings do not match Du's label, nor can they maximize his value.
Is this an unsolvable problem?
For the Nets, it could be. Nash made two important interim changes for this game:
One was to enable Griffin. Griffin wasn't used to get in size, because Griffin played the number five. It's okay, but Griffin has shots, and this one also responded with two three-pointers, which can be a little better on the offensive end. Defensively, it's also better than those defenders. But that wasn't enough to turn the tide of the game – why did Nash go earlier? Some trial and error should be done early, the problem that can be solved by G1 is not delayed to G2, G3 only thinks of trying Griffin, the effect is good or bad, you are not sure whether it is the right person or accidental. Nash has also not tried the big lineup to fight for 5 minutes of defense and consumption in the first and second halfs, and then use the method of harvesting with a small lineup, which is a common arrangement for many teams.
The other time was when five small lineups were used at the end. Take both Curry and Mills up, no center. This is the fighting lineup for chasing points and fighting offense. Mills was furious, the three-pointer was hard, but the lineup was also obviously unable to defend, and the basket was exploded.
Nash doesn't have a 100% perfect plan, but that's neither a reason for Nash nor a reason for KD. In fact, the Nets' supporting roles can not be balanced with the attack and defense is a long-term problem, the world knows, Nash can not be unaware. Such a team with extreme supporting roles should normally be flexible according to the reality of the opponent and the game, but what does Nash do?
Perhaps in order to stabilize the rotation, accelerate the run-in, and solve the problem of large personnel changes in the season, Nash basically maintained a rotation mode after Durant's return, and only used players who suited his ideal system, and completely abandoned players who did not conform to his philosophy, such as Ade and Griffin. The Nets management used a lot of the late season, and the team ran well, although the absolute strength is limited, but it is a relatively scarce organizational forward in the Nets, James Johnson, to cut, just to give a level of playoff rookies to turn positive.
These pits were dug, and the consequences erupted in this series, and the Nets suffered a serious loss in size and were completely punished by the Green Army.
The question is, Ade, Griffin, Gianjo, these three-point points are not stable enough, can they be used by the Green Army defense at the same time, will they definitely help the team win?
Basketball games are played for 48 minutes, not all the time in the only lineup. Player fitness, foul numbers are dynamic, rather than playing at 100% all the time. Many teams know that their strongest lineup is a large four or five small lineup under the large size of the non-spatial point, why do they have to open the big one? It was a 48-minute global game. The big lineup fights the defense first, the small lineup harvests, and changes to a more normal coach, which will basically be laid out like this.
Therefore, the Nets showed tenacious defensive resistance in the opening of G2G3, why did they play more and more collapsed?
Because of the huge confrontation gap, as well as the age gap, they are depleted faster than the Green Army. In turn, they lacked the means to consume the Green Army. This kind of overall view, Nash did not, Nash only his "clean basketball view", he is not a qualified head coach.
So, what about Durant?
It's understandable how much difficulty Durant has encountered, but Durant is hanging on the label of a historic undifferentiated singles player, and has staged countless dry pulls outside the three-point line, and the Green Army does not have a radical bag outside the three-point line. G2G3, Durant only shot a total of 5 three-pointers, two of which were fixed points, and two of the three dry pulls were straight to the defenders, all hits, but he didn't end the round in this way more - this is a sloppy offensive choice, Durant wants to find a more advanced way to win the game, but like he said himself, he thinks too much.
He was Durant, that was him, and this he thought he was didn't exist. When he had to play this way, he wasn't him anymore, and he could have been without that.