For now, the Nets are going to have to talent their way through games.
For now. They can’t do this forever and expect to win games, let alone an NBA championship.
It could be Kevin Durant shooting over each and every defender. It could be James Harden splitting a double team before finding a shooter or dunker, and it could be Kyrie Irving breaking down the defense before pulling up for a jump shot.
This is the life the Nets chose when they surrendered depth and assets for a third superstar.
But the fourth quarter in Brooklyn’s 98-85 win over Miami is more evidence trading the kitchen sink for a superstar is always the right call.
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That superstar answered the bell, as the Nets hoped he would.
Harden was dominant in the fourth quarter, scoring 16 of his 20 points in the final period alone. It was his best performance as a Net in games both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving played.
Head coach Steve Nash is preaching patience, that the offense will come along and find a Golden State Warriors-like fluidity, that the team’s three superstar scorers are a work in progress as a trio, that everything will be fine in a matter of time.
Until that time comes, the Nets are going to lean heavily on their stars to win games.
It wasn’t pretty, and what’s true through the first leg of the regular season was true through the majority of last season, too: The Nets have no chemistry, at least not yet.
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Brooklyn’s spacing is off. The offense has no rhythm, no cadence, and when shots aren’t falling, it’s near unbearable to watch. Luckily for the Nets, Miami struggled shooting from the field long enough for the Nets stars to start cooking.
That was when the Nets looked less like a collection of talented players and more like a team. Harden, who has been largely passive learning to play alongside both Durant and Irving, went on the attack, bending the Heat defense and either scoring or finding the open man.
Just like Nets GM Sean Marks drew it up.
The Heat, though, were without three of their best players: All-Star Jimmy Butler, rising star Tyler Herro and premier perimeter defender Avery Bradley.
The win does not erase some of the Nets’ issues. The Heat only scored 85 points because they missed 32 of their 43 attempts from deep, and for all that Brooklyn star power, 98 total points isn’t turning any heads.
A win is a win, and the Nets needed one after squeaking one out over the Heat on Saturday. Next up: in Atlanta against a Hawks team the Nets struggled with earlier in the season.
