In heartbreaking fashion, the heavy title favorite Brooklyn Nets’ season ended on Saturday at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks, due to two factors, health and below-average play. The former has been the topic of conversation all season due to so many players being plagued with injury as a result of this shortened season.
Ever since the NBA schedule for this season was released late last year it raised a lot of eyebrows because the previous season had just concluded in the bubble. The Los Angeles Lakers won the championship in October. They had to report to training camp less than two months later on December 1; and start the season on December 22.
Even LeBron recently went on a twitter rant about it.
“They all didn’t wanna listen to me about the start of the season,” James tweeted. “I knew exactly what would happen. I only wanted to protect the well-being of the players which ultimately is the PRODUCT and BENEFIT of OUR GAME!”
Injuries to so many of the league’s star players can’t be overlooked
LeBron has a point.
James, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Jamal Murray (just to name a few) all missed significant time this season due to injuries that nagged them.
For some of these it was worse timing than others because it was at the end of the season when they either were about to start the playoffs or during the playoffs.
Not to play the would have should have could have game but, if we’re being honest, if health wasn’t as big of a problem this year as it was, the remaining teams in the playoffs could potentially look different. Because that’s not the case though, seeding just plain and simply hasn’t mattered in this year’s edition of the postseason.
Saturday night, the Nets (2) were upset by the Bucks (3). The Jazz (1) were upset by the Clippers (4) the other day, the Knicks (4) were upset by the Hawks (5). Furthermore, let’s not forget, a few weeks ago, the Lakers were the 4th seed before injuries sidelined LeBron James and Anthony Davis, causing them to go into the playoffs as the 7th seed.
Nets sent to their summer vacation with deflating loss
With all of that being said, injuries definitely played a role in last night’s collapse in Brooklyn. Harden wasn’t anywhere near 100 percent since reaggravating his hamstring earlier in the playoffs. Moreover, Kyrie Irving going down with an ankle sprain last Sunday didn’t help. Kevin Durant had to take on a heavier scoring load than he’s had to since his OKC days. It also didn’t help that Brooklyn’s role players were playing their roles on a consistent basis.
In this series, Joe Harris was nowhere to be found when it came to scoring. Jeff Green only shined in spurts. Blake Griffin had one great game, in Game one, and that was about it.
In Game 7, the Nets couldn’t get of their own way. They took 39 threes and only hit 12 of them, going 30.8% from deep. They also turned the ball over 13 times and only scored nine fast break points. The fast break points were more uncharacteristic of them than anything, because Brooklyn ranked top-10 in the league in fast break points per game.
For the Nets to go out playing in a way that is below their standard is disappointing. However, given what the Nets had, they definitely gave it their all.
That seems to be the consensus in the Brooklyn locker room.
“I wasn’t even planning on losing…so I don’t even know how I’m [going to] feel,” said Durant. “I’m always thinking about our team and how we can get better…but for us we just try to get with each other this summer, keep grinding and come back next year.”
