Kyrie Irving led the Brooklyn Nets in their 128-124 win over the Miami Heat, showing all his quality in the last quarter of the game. The talented point guard returned to action a couple of days ago and the Nets couldn’t find the win with him, James Harden, and Kevin Durant on the court.
After a two-game losing streak where they were dominated by Collin Sexton and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Irving decided it was time to change somethings and he took things personally to lift his Nets over the Heat. Kyrie dropped 18 points in the 4th quarter, taking over for the Nets and leading them to get the first win of their Big 3 era. Following the game, Kyrie talked with reporters, explaining what went through his mind during those inspiring moments.
“It’s winning time,” Irving said, via Malika Andrews of ESPN. “I’ve always said that throughout my career. When it gets down to that point, obviously you just want to buckle down on the defensive end, get stops, and I felt like we did that.”
Kyrie reflected on the prior two losses the Nets suffered, claiming it was time for them to start winning and he didn’t miss his chance to make that happen.
“We had two losses where we had to learn a lot very quickly,” Irving said. “And we just moved on to the next night. And I feel like we gave the effort in spurts, and obviously we want to have more consistency in that — and that’ll take time. I’m happy with the effort tonight.”
Kevin Durant finished with 31 points, James Harden added 12 points and 11 assists while Irving finished the game with 28 points. He was on a mission and he fulfilled it. Hours before the game, Kyrie showed a message on Instagram, claiming the Nets will be on the “main stage” regardless of how bad things started for the Big 3.
He seems pretty convinced that they can play for meaningful things but they need to make some adjustments, especially in defense. Head coach Steve Nash talked about it and made it clear they need a bigger effort from everybody to reach the next level. The Nets still have room to improve but nobody is sure they will actually do so.
