Brooklyn, New York – and Kyrie Irving firmly to him, Luka Doncic Tried to turn, but only to find Ben Simmons on his way.
A 6-foot-10 point guard came in as a help defender and shoved the ball into the open court. He turned around to find Streaking as two defenders approached him. Kevin DurantSimmons passed to Durant and saw him score a huge dunk to tie the game with 14 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
It was Simmons’ first true highlight as a net. Here he is, the 26-year-old ticking his two boxes brought in for playmaking and defense. Net in the clutch.
big time stop @Ben Simmons25 ➡️ @KDTrey5 pic.twitter.com/i0d40VoHp1
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) October 28, 2022
But that wasn’t enough.Doncic’s 41-point triple-double was Mavericks In overtime, they overcame the Nets 129-125 and dropped Brooklyn to 1-4. Kyrie Irving scored 39 and Durant scored 37. IndianaIt’s likely that you’ll be tied to the lottery at the end of the season.
With the Nets on a three-game losing streak, here are five thoughts on the loss.
3rd Scorer Revolving Door
After Irving and Durant’s performances, the Nets’ third-most scorers were: Lois O’Neill When David Duke Jr., each finishing with 10 points on the night.there was no team Joe Harris When Seth Curry, the former is resting as a precaution after having two ankle surgeries in the past year. He was able to make his season debut on Saturday.Nash said markieff morris will return to the team. He is out for personal reasons.
The lack of depth leaves Durant and Irving struggling to find a credible third scorer as Simmons continues to find his feet. Simmons had just 7 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in the loss and missed several easy layups, but continued to show aggression by driving towards the rim.
KD averages 33 PPG.
Kyrie averages 30 PPG.
The net is 1-4. pic.twitter.com/dDB8nS6WzB
— StatMuse (@statmuse) October 28, 2022
Losses also showed how significant TJ Warren If he comes back and approaches a 20-point-per-game scorer, that could be the case. Through five games, the Nets made four different players his third leading scorer. Patty Mills, Nick Claxton, O’Neal, and Duke all fill that spot. None exceeded 20 points. Paying tribute to Doncic in the postgame press conference, Durant pointed out how the Mavericks led six players to double-digit wins. The Nets were two baskets away from Durant and Irving being his only double-digit scorers.
“Everybody was involved,” Durant said of Dallas. “They made a shot.”
Even if Brooklyn wants to do well in the postseason, it will be difficult to do so if Durant and Irving have to maintain the scoring burden they took on early in the season. A bit like Durant from Workload. James Harden We had early last season before the drama started in Brooklyn. The difference is the Nets were winning those games.
Matters could change on Saturday. With Harris, Curry and Morris all back, the Nets are built to get more by the committee rather than pushing their stars to the ground. So it could be a while before it comes to fruition. Otherwise, who knows where the season will go.
what if…?dinwiddie version
The Nets have had the past few seasons of all “what if…?” Spencer Dinwiddieis currently with the Mavericks and has not broken the ACL in three games in the 2020-21 season. The injury hit Charlotte and kicked off an injury-attrition run for the Nets, where he’s been uninjured in five games into the season and the only player to come back from injury before the season is he. there was only one person.
Return to Dinwiddie.Rumors of Harden’s deal swirled before he died, and had he been in good health, he may have been involved in Harden’s original deal. and Irving had a revolving door in the same season, so he would have done quite a bit as a primary point guard. Wizard next summer. Dinwiddie, who has always been a media favourite, was asked before the game if he ever wondered what his career would look like if his time in Brooklyn hadn’t ended with his torn ACL. I was.
“I don’t know if the deal is still going on or if I’m in it,” Dinwiddie said. “Whether it happens or not, I believe the Nets are the champion team, because when you look at how close that team was, we were overpowering people before the injury. Even if they make a trade and I’m in it, that probably means I can keep either Caris (Lubert) or Jarrett (Allen), or I’m not there because I’m still It means being here and with Harden, and in any case, in all three of these scenarios, the team can probably win the championship.”
The Nets now desperately need a player like Allen, who has emerged as an All-Star center in Cleveland, but Steve Nash recently said he wasn’t sure the team could offer him $100 million over five years. The contract he got from the Cavaliers. Coincidentally, Allen and Levert are now teammates in Cleveland. Another scenario for him is if the Nets had retained Dinwiddie, he could have been a valuable trade his piece at the deadline as a loan to meet another need the Nets had. . Unfortunately, this is just another scenario for the greatest virtual team of all time.
Craxton and Simmons Situation
Get back to reality. The question heading into the season was whether Simmons and Nick Claxton could both play together as two non-shooting players who could create spacing issues offensively. He scored his first as a Small Ball Five in Milwaukee on Thursday, and scored more on Thursday.
Brooklyn’s starting five went into Thursday’s game with the worst plus/minus in the league. It’s a tough statistic to quantify, but it suggests some of the personnel issues with roster fit. played less and left. Dalon Sharp on the bench. Nash tended to try lineups early in the season, and he admitted that the Simmons/Claxton stagger was its tentacles.
“I think we’re trying to look at different things. We’re trying to liberate them to be more determined and determined in their roles,” Nash said. “When they’re together, there’s a lot of moving parts to catch on the fly. I thought it gave Ben an opportunity to be more aggressive with the batch. It’s a challenge, and perhaps so far this year people have been reserved in and out of the lineup.
“In the end, tonight, you’re going to go overtime and overdo everyone anyway. But yeah, it was going to look. We need to develop both. I will be part of the team.”
Rebounding was a problem for the Nets, handling some of the league’s bigger centers ( Stephen Adams in Monday’s defeat in Memphis). With just five games left, Marks and Nash have shown confidence in their current staff, but with the current questions set, future rotation decisions will be tough.
Kyrie’s block party
Earlier this year, but to Irving’s credit, he stood by much of what he said in the preseason after asking for a sign-and-trade from the Nets this summer. cluster-which was predicted by looking ugly in brooklyn before they become rosy. Recently, he’s also shown parts of his game that he’s rarely shown before.
Irving had four blocks against the Mavericks, setting a career high set almost a decade ago. cleveland,December 2013. Recorded nine rebounds in the first half against Milwaukee. Irving said on Media Day that he knows his options are limited in the offseason and wants to change the narrative around him. I have consistently said that I can be a player with
“I thought Kai was fighting all year and really trying to defend,” Nash said. “Yesterday in the first half in Milwaukee, he had nine defensive rebounds, which is what we’ve really been asking for, rebounding overall. It’s not about scoring all the time, it’s about finding other ways to help the team, and he does it in many different ways.”
When asked about his new role as a rim protector, Irving laughed off the classification and reiterated what Nash said he wanted to make an impact defensively. immediately pointed out. Especially since the 6-foot-2 point guard isn’t pinning defense down the middle. Rudy Gobert I guess. The season is long and Irving still has a long way to go, but he’s playing as if he’s looking for the biggest contract.
“I don’t think I’m catching blocks above the rim, but I’m paying attention to detail when studying my opponents and making the most of the invisible things blessed by God. “Having a strong hand means you can see where the ball is going and hold your hand. So I challenge myself and I might end up with 4 blocks. .
Successful non-shooter heavy line-up
With Curry and Harris back in the lineup, Nash is probably hoping his days of scheming games with heavy non-shooter lineups are over. I’ve had success with some of them. In the third quarter, Nash played Duke, Claxton, Edmund Sumner Simmons around Durant was to great effect as the unit was able to generate stops and baskets. The unit shot 40 percent of him from the field and played on its own.
Defense ➡️ Offense pic.twitter.com/gtfZrdW8jr
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) October 28, 2022
Durant said he knew the lineup was designed to separate the defense from the players and throw everything at him, but credited the players for closing the gap. Duke had five rebounds and put pressure on the rim, while Sumner hit the basket multiple times to reach the free-throw line.
“The energy, the pace, I thought they were able to scramble defensively, get out and run and put pressure in transition,” Nash said. “Some guys came in and played good basketball with heart and desire and gave us the energy we needed off the bench.”
(Ben Simmons, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving Photo: Sarah Steer/Getty Images)
