BROOKLYN, N.Y. — When an NBA team is short two of their three best players, they have to compensate in other ways. The Brooklyn Nets didn’t do that.
Without Kevin Durant (load management) and James Harden (hamstring) they didn’t make enough threes, didn’t get to the foul line enough, didn’t slow down Damian Lillard and couldn’t get a handle on Jusuf Nurkic.
In the end, the Nets didn’t have enough firepower to keep up with one of the NBA’s historically hotter offenses in Portland. The Trail Blazers led by as many as 22 in a 128-109 win over the Nets that illuminated all that’s missing in Brooklyn.
Portland’s pieces hit on Friday night. Lillard stole the show, and they don’t call him “Logo Lillard” for nothing. Portland’s All-Star guard lit it up in the third quarter, when he hit a pair of deep threes from the inside the “N” of the Nets’ alternate, tie-dye throwback half-court logo to end the period. His night ended at the 3:07 mark in the fourth quarter with the Trail Blazers nursing a 19-point lead — 32 points, nine assists and seven rebounds on the night for Lillard, who made eight of his 13 attempts from deep.
Kyrie Irving, playing after sitting out Thursday against the Pacers due to a groin injury, finished with 28 points on 12-of-26 shooting from the floor. He was active defensively but went cold from three (two-of-eight) and did not make the fourth-quarter plays necessary to keep the Trail Blazer lead from ballooning.
Steve Nash has been in those marquee matchups plenty of times over the course of his Hall of Fame career, but noted pregame that the chess match is in winning the game, not the individual matchup.
“You’re playing a special player certain nights, but it is a team game and the idea is to win, so I never tried to get swept into a one-on-one duel,” the Hall of Fame point guard, with a fair share of marquee matchups under his belt, said. “Sometimes, it appeared that way, but that was more like two guys trying to win the game for their team. That’s the important thing to remember here is it’s great when guys are capable of going off, but what really counts is: how can they affect winning?”
Lillard had help where Irving did not. Nurkic dominated the Nets on the interior, running up 23 points and 11 rebounds with only three missed shots. His dominance forced Nash to turn to DeAndre Jordan, who played in just seven of the 15 games leading into Friday night.
The Trail Blazers also had help from Carmelo Anthony (15 points off the bench), ex-Raptors forward Norman Powell (19 points) and up-and-coming guard Anfernee Simons.
Must be nice to have most of your stars healthy on the floor at this point in the season.
Meanwhile, without Durant, Harden or Nic Claxton (health and safety protocols), Jeff Green had a hot shooting night, making three of his five attempts from deep, and backup guard Mike James, still on a 10-day contract with the Nets, scored 15 points off the bench (though he needed 15 shots to get there.)
That wasn’t enough, not against as high-powered an offense as the Trail Blazers sport.
While it’s unclear whether Harden will return before the playoffs, Durant is back and is being held out only as a strategic measure not to overload his body so soon after a return.
Friday night wasn’t the all-out shootout many expected because, well, it was the Trail Blazers who did most of the shooting. They hit 16 of 36 threes and leaned on their stars, much like what can be expected from the Nets if and when they get healthy for their championship run.
