The Kings beat the Nets 107-77, and this game is important for the Kings because a win would overtake the Lakers to move into eighth. After all, there are two repechage chances in the first half of the play-offs, and one game in the second half is a life-or-death game. So it's the second half of the battle with the Warriors, and the king is dead. Now the king has survived. There's not much to say about the Nets, the season is over, and now it's a game to save dignity. After all, the draft pick is in the hands of the Rockets, and the Rockets can't be too comfortable.
It's just that the gap between the two teams is too big, and the Nets have no choice but to quietly approach the eighth to last place to get a good sign for the Rockets. At the beginning of the game, the Nets were able to resist a little, and once played a 14-7 start. But then the Kings stepped up and the Nets offense stopped immediately. The Kings took advantage of this opportunity to directly go on a 20-3 run, and the Kings led by 10 points in an instant to end the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Kings were even more ferocious, with another wave of 16-0 leads reaching a terrifying 25 points.
In the second half, the Nets could only rely on Thomas piecemeal, who was almost a fig leaf for the whole team, and Bridges, the nominal cornerstone of the Nets, performed mediocre, and the Nets really couldn't play around him. In the end, the Kings led by 6 points in the final quarter, and the Nets had no choice but to surrender. The Kings fired inside and outside the game, Sabonis scored 18 points, 20 rebounds and 9 assists on the inside of the Nets, Jokic with 19 points, and Fox with 20 points.
On the Nets' side, Thomas scored 21 points on 8-of-18 shooting, Bridges scored only 8 points, and Schroder scored 4 points on 1-of-12 shooting. What about the Nets now? '24, '25, '26 and '27 first-round picks and swap rights were all sent to the Rockets in the Harden trade. Now the team is shabby, who can provoke the big beam? Bridges is okay with the three-in-command, when he goes to be the core and jokes, just like when the Rockets really didn't have a big player in Shu to trade to Ariza to build a team, and it turned out to be a laughing stock.
You said that building a team around Thomas is also funny, he has limited talent, at most he is at the level of Hiro. Moreover, it is not easy for the Nets to recruit reinforcements, and they have become more and more dominant in the renewal of the parent team in recent years. Because many young stars are no longer looking to leave, the reason is that the parent club has more annual salaries and longer years to renew their contracts. Leaving the parent team is a huge loss, unless they are traded away by the parent team, normal young stars will stay, and this is where the NBA is different from what it used to be, the mobility of stars has become poorer.
So in the next few years, it will be difficult for the Nets to improve, let's just say that the Nets have been picking in the past 4 years, and the Rockets have earned at least one scout to guarantee the bottom. The existence of the Nets makes the Rockets very flexible, and let's put it bluntly, the Rockets can't keep half of the six sons. First of all, Jalen Green and Shen Jing are not very compatible, and maybe in the end, the Rockets will have to choose one of the two, or find a way to make the two compatible. And then how much does Tanhua Smith really give?
Amen Thompson and White Devil Whitmore will also renew their contracts in the future, Ethan will be offensive and defensive, and the future will also be the gate of the Rockets 3-4, these rookies will usher in contract renewals in the next 1-3 years, and the Rockets will have a headache. But now that the Nets draft pick is in hand, the Rockets won't all stay. What the Rockets need is to decide who is the core, and then trade whoever of the six is not suitable for the new core. And use the Nets to pick a high-pick talent that is more suitable for the new core, the Nets brought the top pick and exploration to the Green Army that year, and the future of the Rockets is limitless. That's why owner Fertitta said that he welcomes Harden to come back and retire in the future, and this wave of Harden's departure from the team can be regarded as meritorious.