The Brooklyn Nets geared up for an afternoon road game on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But the end result was not what they hoped for as Darius Garland and the Cleveland Cavaliers got the better of the shorthanded Nets, 114-107. It was James Harden and Kyrie Irving's first full game playing without Kevin Durant, and it's not an encouraging start to say the least.
Durant suffered an MCL sprain in the last contest, and he is reportedly looking at a 4-6 week absence. With that said, there figures to be a Big 2, if and only if the Nets are away from Barclays Center. But for Brooklyn's home games, Irving won't be around so they'll lean on just Harden and complementary players like Patty Mills and LaMarcus Aldridge for those matches.
Smooth operator@JHarden13 #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/JXet0WueOy
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) January 17, 2022
At one point in the game, Harden took a knee to the thigh, but he emphasize he'd be fine.
“Yeah I just got a knee, I'm good, I should be all right,” said Harden after the game. The Beard finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and 10 dimes. He kept the pressure on the Cavs by getting to the line 15 times, connecting on 10 freebies.
After the loss, he was asked what went wrong down the stretch.
“Man I don't think it's about down the stretch, I think it was the entire game,” Harden added. “I know individually, myself, I gotta be a lot better, both ends of the ball. Just a lot of mishaps or whatever you wanna call it, I gotta be better.”
Harden noted that the Nets allowing 65 first half points to the Cavs was really where things went awry for them.
The team is hopeful that Kevin Durant will be back some time after the All-Star Break. KD is leading the NBA in points per game with 29.3, and that won't be an easy hole to fill.
So the team who has played precious few games without their Big 3 will have to continue to wait for these ever elusive scary hours.
The game Monday was actually pretty winnable. At one point, the Nets were up 97-93. Unfortunately, they couldn't close this one out. Steve Nash's guys didn't score their next field goal until there was just over four minutes to play. Still, it was tied 105-105 with 3:43 remaining until they went cold and the upstart Cavs closed on a 9-2 run down the stretch.
Brooklyn now drops to 27-16 overall and 15-5 on the road. The Cavs win their fifth consecutive game and further jam up the standings in a much-improved Eastern Conference.
How can the Nets win these games without KD?
“I think we just have to just be ready to make adjustments on the fly,” said Irving after the game. Kyrie got hot at one point. He finished with a game high 27 points to go with seven boards and nine dimes in his fourth game of the year.
“Do whatever is needed for guys to fill in that role. I mean you can't replace Kevin. It's impossible. So I think we just face that reality right this second and moving forward on this road trip,” Irving continued.
“Just be ready to be flexible, game to game….we know that on a given night me an James can go for 30 apiece, but we're really looking forward to seeing a lot of the guys collectively, chip in on the offensive end. And then defensively, just our communication has to be that much more crisp we don't have somebody that can really clean up some of the mistakes on the backside like Kevin…. Im still finding my bearings with the team, so we just take it one game at a time.”
Irving also opened up after the game about his vaccination status and views on that subject. He set things straight on if he'll get vaccinated now that Durant is set to miss time.
"Kev's gonna heal. Kev's gonna be OK. And we're gonna have to deal with that as his teammates. But in terms of where I am with my life outside of this I stay rooted in my decision and that's just what it is. It's not gonna be swayed just because of one thing…."
-Kyrie Irving
— DaveEarly (@DavidEarly) January 17, 2022
Irving was also asked to reflect on all of the things from injuries, to vaccine mandates that has kept their Big 3 from sharing the floor.
“A loaded question man, yeah it's a lot to process. What we intended to be and what we still intend to be but all these hiccups and uncontrollable things. In the playoffs last year James goes out and then I'm going up for a shot and Giannis comes over and his foot just happens to be in the way. And then this year coming into the season this situation that I'm in and then now were dealing with Kev being out and I just think it's one of those things that real life takes precedent over this game so much and when you're out there anything can happen and part of being part of the team is just taking that collective responsibly once it hits and just dealing with it.”
“It's tough though,” continued Irving, “when you think about just how all of this is still coming together and we have yet to play a consistent amount….our time is coming. It's coming. It may not be now but I definitely feel like some of these things that happen are for a reason and it's for a bigger purpose. We'll see what happens.”
If these Nets go on to win the 2022 NBA championship, it would certainly be one to savor after all the obstacles that stood in their way. For now, they'll take it one day at a time.
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