The ball was within the air and it positive appeared good due to course it appeared good, as a result of nearly each time Kevin Durant lets one fly it seems good, and most of the time it is good.
The buzzer groaned at Barclays Middle and 17,917 followers awaited the decision, prepared to offer a roar that might’ve been the equal of the depth on the ground the earlier 53 minutes. A sleek would convey candy launch all the best way from the (comparatively) low cost seats. And provides the Nets an enormous increase.
However the ball didn’t swish. It clanked towards the rim and bounced away. The roar was changed by solemn quiet. The increase went bust. Yet one more time, the Bucks would stroll away from Barclays with a heart-stopping win, this time 120-119. The Bucks jumped off their bench. The Nets trundled off to the locker room.
“We have to win that sport,” Bruce Brown mentioned, shaking his head sadly.
That's truly greater than mere platitude, too. The Nets actually do have to learn to win video games like this, towards groups like this. We're now not within the summary with this group. This was the Nets’ forty seventh sport towards a group with a successful file this 12 months. They’ve received 19 of them. Quickly, each group they play may have a successful file, and there will probably be actual penalties for failing to win these video games.
“We’re a brand-new group, actually, taking part in towards the champs,” Nets coach Steve Nash mentioned. “We actually haven’t had plenty of alternatives to play collectively.”
Sorry, however as truthful as that could be it's an excuse that merely doesn’t fly any extra. Kyrie Irving could also be new to Barclays Middle (the place the Nets at the moment are a discouraging 1-3 with him within the lineup, which is a good worse proportion than their 17-21 total residence file). However he's now 23 video games into his season. His scenario is what it's. They have to determine this out, and never on their very own schedule.
This sport, in reality, was particularly galling. With 3 minutes and 1 second left, the Nets led by 9 and Giannis Antetokounmpo missed a pair of foul photographs. However Wesley Matthews, of all individuals, snuck in for a putback, and that sparked the Bucks on an 11-2 run to shut out regulation, capped by an Antetokounmpo 3-pointer with 18.7 seconds left.
Nash can clarify away his group’s lack of familiarity over the course of a 48-minute sport and there are parts of equity to that. However when you might have Irving and Durant in your aspect, there may be merely no rationalization for being held to 2 factors over the ultimate 181 seconds of a sport. That’s why they’re right here. They're purported to be closers.
As a substitute, the 2 of them and the remainder of the Nets graciously left the door open for the Bucks, and the Bucks reminded everybody inside Barclays Middle what a professional champion does with such alternatives. Champions seize these moments. Additionally-rans observe them.
“Typically effort must be there as a lot as expertise,” Irving mentioned.
“It’s one thing for us to construct on,” Nash mentioned. “There’s loads of room for enchancment.”
If this had been November, even January, Nash’s Pollyanna lyrics would possibly truly be cheap. However this isn’t November. It isn’t January. We at the moment are into April, and we're lower than two weeks away from the play-in match. And within the play-in, one off-night — hell, one unhealthy 181-second stretch — might finish a season in a rush.
Look, the Nets provide you with loads of proof each time they play if you wish to consider they will take this all the best way from play-in to parade, all the best way from a possible one-and-done street sport to Borough Corridor and redemption. There was loads of that Thursday evening, in reality. For 45 minutes, each time the Bucks got here shut, or took a lead, the Nets had a 6-0 or 11-2 run of their again pocket, and it at all times seems superb.
And means little when the scoreboard reads because it learn Thursday evening after Durant’s 22-footer bounced away.
“We do issues fairly properly for 3 quarters,” Irving mentioned. “Within the fourth quarters now we have to be a veteran ball membership and buckle down on each ends of the ground. We’re nonetheless making an attempt to get to know one another.”
It’s a good level and a real level but additionally an irrelevant level. And if the Nets aren’t cautious, it’ll be a degree they’re making as they clarify away a misplaced season, not merely a misplaced sport, and by then no person will probably be listening anymore.
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