NBA Hoops

Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving failed the Nets

Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving failed the Nets

BROOKLYN — The murmurs grew from whispers, then to a dull roar as the obvious turned to reality, the chants turning into taunts at Barclays Center.

“Let’s go Celtics.”

Forty-eight minutes remain between the Brooklyn Nets meeting another premature end to what was expected to be a championship season, following a borderline soulless performance against the Boston Celtics.

Two championship players in the middle of their primes coming together was supposed to result in something dynastic. Instead, the team facing the most pressure in arguably the NBA’s modern-day history sat on a whoopee cushion and laid an egg.

The Celtics smelled blood after expecting to take the Nets’ best shot, then settled themselves to pull off a road win on a night where their best players grinded themselves to having a good night.

The Nets’ best players were aimlessly wandering in the wilderness, thinking and overthinking, creating the feeling that the basketball gods and karma were somehow working against them. Kevin Durant took fewer shots than Bruce Brown, a solid player but one nobody in Celtics green feared. In fact, it was probably in Ime Udoka’s master plan to have Durant confused with what he saw, turning him into a stationary target rather than the sniper he’s been for the last decade or so.

“I probably should’ve took more shots,” Durant confessed. “But I tried to play the game the right way without being too aggressive. I’m just thinking too much this whole series, to be honest.”

This wasn’t some punishment by outside forces, it wasn’t Durant’s foot barely touching paint in a Game 7 against an eventual champion. The only similarity between the last playoff and this one was the opponent being fortified by true failure and a genuine respect for the process of 82 games.

It’s borderline amazing how Durant could operate at full functionality and usurp everything in Golden State’s championship culture, yet bring none of it with him — or not know how to…

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