BOSTON – The clock ticks to zero and along the Nets on the sidelines of two future Halls of Fame with over 200 playoff games between them looks shaken. This is a game that Brooklyn has to win. Necessary to win. So won. One half led 10 points. Help from the supporting cast. A Celtics defense in the first half helped the Nets shoot 61%. A team with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would have to play all game to lose this one.
And it did. Bad. The Nets shot 31% in the second half. Durant, for the last 24 minutes, failed to take a shot. Irving, being booed wildly for the second straight game, finished with a score of 4 of 13. Seven Celtics finished with doubles. Payton Pritchard— Payton Pritchard! —Score 10 in 16 minutes. Durant and Irving rank among the NBA’s most feared fourth-scorers. Boston led the Nets 29–17 in the final 12 minutes.
114 in Boston, 107 in Brooklyn.
Celtics lead 2–0 series.
And the Nets are in a troubled world.
When the game was most important, the superstar duo of Brooklyn Nets folded and the Boston Celtics dominated the fourth half to take a 2-0 lead in the first series.
After taking a 17-point lead and entering the fourth half with a 5-point margin, the Nets were completely overwhelmed — and trailed at both ends of the floor when Steve Nash’s former assistant, Ime Udoka, made the moves. tune in to help his team win the game.
Finally, after going 29-17 in the fourth round, Brooklyn was beaten 114-107 by Boston. With the defeat, the Nets returned to Brooklyn Saturday in a dangerous 2-0 hole.
Kevin Durant is struggling once again and his play in the first series has officially become unsettling. After being limited to just 23 points when shooting 9/24 from the field and 1/5 from behind the arc in 41 minutes in Sunday’s Game 1 loss, the Nets superstar mirrored a struggling performance. on Wednesday night.
“This isn’t just about Kevin. It’s about our team playing better,” the Nets coach Steve Nash warned in advance. “We didn’t leave [Game 1] saying, ‘Well, if Kevin plays better, we’ll win.’ That’s not how we approach it at all,” Steve Nash said after the 114-107 loss to the Celtics Wednesday night. “It’s a team, what did we do well as a team, what did we not do well as a team, how can we improve on that and play a game better teammates.
