The Nets began the season because the betting favorites. They ended it the butt of jokes.
Brooklyn, a supposed superteam anticipated to win the title, suffered a humbling 116-112 Sport 4 loss to the Celtics. A primary-round sweep introduced their season to an ignominious finish Monday evening earlier than a sellout crowd of 18,099 at Barclays Heart.
“Simply disappointment, disappointment,” Kyrie Irving mentioned. “But in addition extra importantly on the constructive aspect is motivation. It’s simply burning in my coronary heart proper now. … So many individuals needed to see us fail at this juncture, picked us as contenders and have a lot to say at this level. So I’m simply utilizing that as gasoline for the summer time.”
It marked a bitter last chapter in an unpredictable and unprecedented season that had extra melodrama than even dangerous actuality TV may muster. Besides it was actual.
From Irving’s vaccine refusal that led to him lacking over 50 video games and James Harden demanding a commerce. That deal introduced again Ben Simmons, who nonetheless hasn’t performed on account of bodily and psychological woes.
On Monday, this wild experience lastly went off the rails.
“It was actually heavy emotionally this season. All of us felt it. I felt like I used to be letting the crew down at some extent the place I wasn’t in a position to play,” Irving mentioned. “It grew to become a distraction at instances. As you see, we had some drastic modifications. We misplaced a franchise participant and obtained a franchise participant again, however didn’t get an opportunity to see him on the ground.”
And even on the bench, with Simmons not sitting alongside his teammates as they had been eradicated.
The Celtics go on to the second spherical to face the 76ers or Raptors. The underachieving Nets go on to an early offseason to face some powerful questions.
Kevin Durant lastly broke out of a stoop with 39 factors, however had a pricey missed free throw with 22 seconds left. And that paled as compared with Nic Claxton going 1-of-11 on the stripe, tying Wilt Chamberlain (Might 8, 1970) for the worst efficiency in playoff historical past (minimal 10 makes an attempt), based on Elias Sports activities Bureau.
Seth Curry added 23 factors and Irving 20.
“There’s a number of stuff that components in to why we lose, however they had been only a higher crew,” Durant mentioned. “They performed that approach.”
That’s an understatement. Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 29 factors earlier than fouling out, the Nets obtained outrebounded 45-38 and struggled versus Boston’s size.
“I’m the man who doesn’t want excuses. I’ve been a part of groups that we didn’t search for that and I’m not for these excuses,” Goran Dragic mentioned. “We had been simply not ok they usually had been simply higher.”
Andre Drummond logged simply 3:36 in ceding time to Claxton. Steve Nash went small however nonetheless didn’t get nice spacing and suffered defensively on the opposite finish.
The Nets trailed by as a lot as 15, and had been down 90-78 after the third quarter. They did get three fast buckets with a Durant fadeaway making it 90-84, however the Nets couldn’t string collectively sufficient stops to recover from the hump.
A 3 by Marcus Sensible (20 factors, 11 assists) left the Nets down 101-91 with 6:54 left.
Brooklyn had a final gasp rally, an 8-1 run. Durant discovered Dragic for a 3 that pulled the Nets inside 102-99 with 5:24 remaining.
Durant hit Irving for a 3 to make it 109-106, and sank a midrange floater moments later to tug Brooklyn inside 109-108. However that’s as shut because it obtained.
Jaylen Brown (22 factors) obtained free for a layup with a minute left. And Durant went to the road down 111-108 with 22 seconds to play however hit simply certainly one of two.
Even after forcing a Sensible miss, the Nets couldn’t corral the rebound and let Al Horford get a tip-in that iced it.
It was a tragic finish to a season that began with the Nets’ unique Massive 3 that included Harden, the superteam that by no means was.
“No regrets. S–t occurs. No crying over spilled milk. It’s about how we will progress and get higher,” Durant mentioned. “No time to really feel remorse or be too pissed off about it. Discover a answer to get higher, proactive as a company and get higher. … We will’t haven't any regrets on what we did. S–t simply performed out the best way it performed.”
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