The Brooklyn Nets suffered a disappointing Game 1 loss against the Boston Celtics away from home in their first-round playoff series. Jayson Tatum managed to get a buzzer-beating layup to go in which allowed the Celtics to sneak the game after Kyrie Irving’s explosive 4th quarter had seemingly taken it away from the home side.
One of the biggest disappointments of the game was the play of Kevin Durant, with KD struggling to get his offense going all night. The Celtics played a very physical brand of defense on Durant and there were quite a few early fouls, probably to get him out of rhythm. KD shot an abysmal 37% from the field while making just 1 three-pointer and turning the ball over 6 times.
This meant that Irving’s 39-point explosion wasn’t enough to seal a victory and Charles Barkley pointed out on TNT that the Nets cannot afford either of their stars to have an off game, they need both to be firing on all cylinders if they are to go deeper into the playoffs as the 7th seed.
“Those guys (Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant) played fantastic against Cleveland, and it was still a six-point game with three or four minutes to go. Can they have four perfect games? You see today, one guy was amazing, the other guy had a little subpar game, and they lost.
“And that’s why I say those two guys have to play great, one of them can’t play great, they both have to play great, and I thought you saw a perfect example of that today.”
Irving going off was almost expected, he was riled up by the Celtics fans all night, getting abused and booed nearly every time he touched the ball. The Nets have a tenacious team, but outside of KD and Kyrie, not a lot of shot-creation, meaning that at least till Ben Simmons can get up to speed, both will need to be at their best in every game the Nets play.
