Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets were surprised by the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night, with the purple and gold beating the New Yorkers, 126-101, upsetting the No. 1 ranked in the Eastern Conference. The Nets were heavily favored to win this match given all the absence the Lakers have right now, including LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Well, that wasn’t a problem for them and they got to work, surprising the Nets at the very beginning of the game and never pumping the brakes on Durant, Kyrie Irving, and co. After the game was over, Durant was asked about what went wrong with the Nets and he gave his props to the Lakers, saying they played as the defending champions and people shouldn’t forget that. The 1st quarter of the game finished 33-25, hinting how the rest of the game was going to be for these teams (0:32).
“They just played with more urgency to start the game,” said Durant. “I mean, they hit us in the mouth early, and we were fighting uphill the whole game. Then, they got hot. You come in the game, guys who haven’t played as much get more opportunities and they’re playing free and they came out and hit us in the mouth. So you’ve got to; they’re the champs. You’ve got to respect it.”
When people try to bring this team down, they always respond and now that they don’t have LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Kyle Kuzma, the Lakers still have that pride and that desire to win. They scored a huge win against one of their possible rivals in the NBA Finals and that result will boost their confidence.
Durant just played his second game after returning from an injury. At this point, he’s trying to recover his best shape and the Nets can’t wait to have his best version back on the court. Nobody expects them to suffer these losses against weaker teams but they already know what they need to avoid to not be surprised again.
