Brooklyn Nets Weekly: Establishing the Guard

Season Record: 16-12

Week Record: 2-1

Player of the Week: Kyrie Irving - 28.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 6.3 APG, 1.3 TO, 48.4 FG%, 100.0 FT%

Best Individual Performance: Kyrie Irving - 35 Points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 blocks, and just 2 turnovers in 104-94 win versus the Indiana Pacers (scored 19 second-half points)

SUMMARY

This was Brooklyn’s best 3-game stretch (defensively) ever since James Harden joined the team back in mid-January. The week started with an away game against Detroit, one of the league’s worst teams. Brooklyn was without Kevin Durant, but with Irving and Harden, there should have been enough firepower to outgun the lowly Pistons. Things started off rough for the Nets as the Pistons scored 38 points in the 1st quarter on 64% shooting. The Nets did a better job defending in the 2nd quarter, holding the Pistons to 44% shooting, but they still trailed by 9 at half. Brooklyn was able to chip away at the lead, even making it a 2-point game, but Detroit was resilient and put Brooklyn away in the 4th. It was a bad loss to a bottom-of-the-East team, marking Brooklyn’s 3rd loss in a row.

Next up was a home game versus the Indiana Pacers, a struggling, yet still good, team. The Nets opened with arguably their best half of defense all season, only allowing 30 points in the game’s first 24 minutes. The team more than doubled the Pacers’ 1st half output, scoring 62 points behind a balanced effort (4 double-digit scorers in the 1st half). Things started looking a bit shaky as the Pacers scored 13 unanswered points as the Nets just couldn’t buy a basket for nearly 5 minutes in the 3rd quarter. The remainder of the game wasn’t necessarily close, but it did show how flawed the team’s structure was. Both Irving and Harden were relied upon, late in the game, to prevent another scoring drought, even though the team was up nearly 20 points. It showed a lack of trust in the other players to be playmakers in the offense, something that needs to be addressed well before the playoffs somehow.

The final game of the week was against the surprisingly dangerous Golden State Warriors. It marked Durant’s 1st return to his former team and arena, making his return to the court even more intriguing. DeAndre Jordan was ruled out of the game, making things interesting for Steve Nash’s defensive scheme. Luckily for Brooklyn, Golden State’s entire rotation was featured of 6’8” and under players, making the absence of Jordan inconsequential. The Nets would go on to build a lead in the 1st and never look back, outsourcing the Warriors in all but the final quarter, when the game was already out of reach. The biggest takeaway from the game was Irving publicly stating that Harden was the PG and he was the SG. We all knew it, seeing Harden rack up the assists consistently as Irving took more shots than anyone else on the team, including Durant. It was a smart move by Irving to make the statement, putting rest to any future rift the media could have attempted to stir up between the two guards.

While the week started off ugly with a poor loss to a non-contending team, Brooklyn was able to bounce back with back-to-back wins, putting them 4 games above .500 on the season. With the additions of Iman Shumpert, Norvel Pelle, and now Noah Vonleh, plus the impending return of big-man Nicolas Claxton, the Nets defense should receive a slight boost in the upcoming weeks. All their additions project as plus defenders, though the minutes may not be available for them to make impacts.

NEXT UP

@ Sacramento Kings 2/15/21

@ Phoenix Suns 2/16/21

@ Los Angeles Lakers 2/18/21