The Brooklyn Nets set sail for a long six-game road trip earlier this month. At the beginning of it, they were 5-3 overall, fifth place in the newly competitive Eastern Conference. There has been a rising middle class in the East with improved play overall. But after going 5-1 away from Brooklyn, the Nets now find themselves tied for first place in the win column with the Washington Wizards.
The Nets have been powered by their top star in Kevin Durant. He currently has the second-best MVP odds through 14 games, per FanDuel, averaging 29.6 points per game to lead the league in that category.
Their next best player has been James Harden, who has had an inconsistent start to the year. Harden's road trip started off a bit shaky. In Detroit, he played poorly and even appeared disoriented at times. But since that game, he has picked up the pace a bit. Harden is now tied with Trae Young for the most total dimes dished out with 130 total.
On the season, The Beard is averaging 19.5 points, 9.3 assists, and 7.6 boards after a breakout season-high 39 points and 12 dimes against the New Orleans Pelicans last weekend.
But the Nets have also gotten big contributions from others. Joe Harris shot 6-of-8 from downtown to help ground the Pelicans. Patty Mills went 9-of-12 from deep to silence the Oklahoma City Thunder. LaMarcus Aldridge exploded for 21 points and drained 3-of-5 from downtown in Orlando. It was Blake Griffin who stepped up by contributing 14 points on 3-of-5 from long range in Toronto.
After the most recent victory, Harden talked about the help he and Durant have received from the team's supporting cast.
“I mean 9 3s [for Patty Mills] is pretty good to me,” said Harden. “I mean that’s the beauty of it, it’s a long season. Gonna have some tough games, tough stretches, whatever you wanna call it. But Patty’s a vet, he’s been through a lot you know, he knows how to get himself out [of a recent cold stretch where Mills shot just 6-of-23 from beyond the arc]. He just continues to work, good things will happen for him,” praised The Beard.
“That’s for all our guys. We try to put confidence in each and everybody to whatever your role is, do it and do it every single night make it or miss it just try to do it and we’ll live with the results,” said Harden.
Nets head coach Steve Nash also appreciated the overall effort but from Mills in particular.
“He was aggressive obviously,” said Nash. “He got hot, made some great 3s, some big 3s, gave our offense a little extra boost, some life. It's great when we have someone else like Joe, Patty, LA step up like that, BG in Toronto, make some 3-balls, kinda spread the floor a little bit and obviously put points on the board as well.”
At one point, James Harden sounded an awful lot like Nash. Listen to how Nash-like the following quote sounds. What did he like about the road trip? Only the full transcript does it justice.
“Both ends honestly,” said the 2018 MVP. “Both ends defensively and offensively. We're coming together. It feels good out there. Feels more fluent, it feels like it should and obviously we got a long way to go, we're still building on it. … We’ve experienced a little adversity and we’ve experienced being away from home and having to fight through and grind out different games and go on different runs and teams coming back against us and how to get a good shot and get three stops in a row to win games. There's been a lot of things for us to go through for this road trip, so it was a good test for us.”
"It feels like it should…obviously we got a long way to go but…it was a good test for us."
James Harden on the 5-1 road trip.
(James sounding more like #nets coach Steve Nash by the day. All he needs now is to add the word "connectivity" a few times) pic.twitter.com/Kh4s1EHTnI— DaveEarly (@DavidEarly) November 15, 2021
Harden is normally less animated, but this question really seemed to get him juiced. Kevin Durant echoed the sentiment as well.
What did KD like about the road trip?
“I just liked the energy we played with on both sides of the ball,” explained Durant. “Especially having six games in a row, we haven’t really played a lot of road games, so to come in here and stick together and get some wins felt good. But overall I liked the brand of basketball we played on both ends.”
According to NBA.com, the Nets have the 14th-rated offense and the seventh-rated defense. They'll face their toughest challenge yet on Tuesday in the league's best team through 13 games, the 11-2 Golden State Warriors. Only Durant's former teammate in Stephen Curry has better MVP odds than Slim Reaper at this point in the season. That possible NBA Finals preview will be must-see TV.
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