A season that never started is over for the Nets. The previous thoughts were worth nothing or that in the playoffs they were going to be a problem for the top teams. Nor that the Bucks let themselves lose the last game of the regular season because they thought it was the black beast of the first round. Both here and at across the pondanalysts and journalists have (we) maintained that this team was a candidate for the ring, for the title. That talent wins championships. But talent is worth nothing if it is not accompanied by a certain dose of structural logic, some kind of foundation that supports something that fails from the base to the top, that makes no sense neither in its owner nor in its stars. That is disjointed, decontextualized, at an unknown moment of the project and with an uncertainty about his future that is only rivaled by the catastrophe that he is experiencing in a present that looks like a summer of reflection, and we’ll see if it changes.
At no time during the season have the Nets proved to be a team that would have opted for the ring, no matter how much their well-known talent forced us to give time to something that was not going to resolve the passing of days. Already at the end of the regular season It was seen that not even with a huge mansalva of points from Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant could solve something that, simply, had no solution. The total and absolute absence of a defensive plan, which in attack was based solely on the stars solving things on their own, has been a more than typical trend, a problem that has been seen this year or since Steve Nash arrived for directing a project that didn’t want to be directed, one that Kyrie said that “I didn’t have a coach” or what “they would train together“. It depends on how it is mediated.
Joseph Tsai first decided that without Kyrie it was enough for them and that the coronavirus gave the entity a good press. Then, as the months went by, he saw that things were not working and that the point guard had to play away games. Eric Adams, mayor of New York, fought to remove the restrictions that prevented the point guard from playing so that he could also play the games at home, since, according to his own words, he would “everything possible to bring the ring to the city“. And all this, because of Kyrie’s things with the vaccine, just one more chapter in the career of a historically good player who is better known for his outbursts and messes off the court than, sadly, for his talent on the field. same. An absolutely generational star capable of helping George Floyd’s wife financially and allow everyone to forget their good deeds, buried by the bad. A man who won the ring in the Cavaliers, left the Celtics project shivering and came to New York to get something that he has not been even close to. A person who, let us remember, claimed that the earth was round and then said that “I’m not a very smart guy“. A broken sport toy.
Durant, his dance partner in the disaster, hasn’t been too fine. His 39 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists in the fourth game do not fix a series that spoil his legacy. The forward has touched 30 points per game in the regular season, He has been injured for a long time (he has played 55 games) and scored 23, 27 and 16 points in the first three games against the Celtics. Always defended by two or three players, he has lost the individual duel with Jayson Tatum, has not been able to with the strength and defensive lateral movements of Grant Williams and has made up for the blows received by an iron and tough defense with a worthy match in which He has folded the ball very well, but in which he has stayed in 3 of 11 in triples, he has committed 4 losses and has missed the free throw that was going to keep the Nets alive. Along with Kyrie, he was in charge of planning behind the scenes the departure of Kenny Atkinson in his first year in Brooklyn, which passed in white (Irving only played 20 games). And his titanic effort against the Bucks last year has long been forgotten: no conference finals in three seasons and no hint, beyond the mirage of a year ago, of reaching it. And all with a Steve Nash who was given both stars and whose only solution has been, once again, put a minute to Durant and Kyrie on court (47 from the forward despite the fouls, 3 in the first half, and 45 from Kyrie) and pray that it would give him an extra life.
Celtics Revenge
For the Celtics it is vindication and redemption, the ability to save a project that Kyrie left trembling, to reaffirm and also take revenge, of course, on the Nets who eliminated them last year when the tables were almost opposite (4-1) and of Irving himself and his gestures and combs, with a fine included, in the initial duel of the series. An extraordinarily hard-working team, that comes out of the time-outs well, that doesn’t notice the defensive changes and that forces the rival to do what they want. That punishes the mistakes of others and has an absolutely historic defense. That he can overcome the elimination due to lack of Jayson Tatum in the final stretch of the match, take advantage of his exhibition in the third quarter to maintain his advantage (29 points, 12 in that period and a post that Kobe Bryant himself would have signed) and then get strong without him. A team that has not won any of the four games clearly, but that has been clearly superior in the four games. In total, the total combined point difference has been 20 in favor of the Celtics, who have won 1, 7, 6 and 6 points each of the games. And, despite them, the dominance shown has been completely objective.
In addition to Tatum, the Celtics had 22 points and 8 rebounds (0 of 5 on three-pointers) from Jaylen Brown, 14 points from Grant Williams, 13 points from Al Horford, an extraordinary collective defense and, of course, Marcus Smart. Always Marcus Smart. 20 points, 5 rebounds and 11 assists for a point guard who has been on offense and defense, dished out his first 10 passes without losing and even allowed himself the luxury of letting Durant shoot the 3-pointer after fouling him very cleverly on that shot. free that failed, the only one in the entire match. For free throws, those of Nic Claxton, who played a very serious game (13+6+2+2+3) and went 6 of 6 in field goals…and 1 of 11 in triples. He missed the top 10 consecutively, a dubious record with which he surpassed Shaquille O’Neal, who missed the top 8 he attempted in a playoff game with the Heat, in 2006. Nash played it out with Blake Griffin by In the end, a man who at 33 looks like he’s 40 and who couldn’t beat Horford, who at 35 looks like 30. And it worked for him for a while: his good ability to take fouls in attack and his experience make up for his total absence, after many injuries , vertical jump. Another desperate attempt from Nash, who introduced a man to the rotation who did not play in the first two games of the tie and only enjoyed 8 in the third. Today, almost 18.
With Griffin on track, Kyrie, Durant, Seth Curry and Goran Dragic coincided in the last quarter. ORa surreal quintet that couldn’t fight for the rebound (45-38 for the Celtics, 10 of them offensive) or defend, and in which Kyrie showed more indolence than Dragic (10+8+4, his good series) who was one of the few who wanted to extend the Serie. Irving, who finished with 20 on just 13 shots and popped up late in the fourth quarter, didn’t seem that eager. In fact, I’m sure he preferred to say goodbye to the season here than under the shouting of the Garden. In the rest, 23 points from a Curry (9 of 13 in field goals and 5 of 9 in triples) that maybe, who knows, he misses Philadelphia, and just 3:36 for Andre Drummond, relegated to the bench as soon as he started a game in which the Nets never got ahead and barely tied 3 times, none of them in the second half.