Game 2 Loss to the Celtics Has the Nets Grasping at Straws

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Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving didn’t click Wednesday, and now Brooklyn is staring Down

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A 2–0 hole against a more well-organized Boston squad. The clock ticked towards zero and along the Nets sideline

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Two future Hall of Famers with more than 200 playoff games between them looked shook.

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This was a game Brooklyn had to win. Needed to win. Seharusnya menang. A 10-point halftime lead. Help from the supporting cast. [{ "selector": ".ademu-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "500ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateX(-319px) rotate(-580deg)", "opacity": 1}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateX(0) rotate(0deg)", "opacity": 1} ] }]

A Celtics defense that in the first half allowed the Nets to shoot 61%. A team with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would have to kick the game away to lose this one.

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And it did. Dengan buruk. The Nets shot 31% in the second half. Durant, in those final 24 minutes, didn’t make a field goal.

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He said he had nervous and surprising interference ... which caused him to write on the wall in his blood

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Irving, lustily booed for the second game in a row, finished 4-of-13. Seven Celtics finished in double-figures. Payton Pritchard— Payton Pritchard!—scored 10 in 16 minutes.

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Durant and Irving rank among the NBA’s most feared fourth-quarter scorers. Boston throttled the Nets 29–17 over the final 12 minutes.

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Boston 114, Brooklyn 107. The Celtics take a 2–0 series lead. And the Nets are in a world of trouble.

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For weeks, Brooklyn was the NBA’s boogeyman. Two games against the Celtics and the Nets have been exposed.

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Durant looks tired. He averaged 41 minutes per game in the final five games of the regular season. He logged 42 in the play-in game. Against Boston [{ "selector": ".wuaaj-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "500ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateX(-319px) scale(0.15)", "opacity": 1}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateX(0) scale(1)", "opacity": 1} ] }]

Durant isn’t just matching up with good defenders. He’s wrestling with them. He’s scored 50 points in the first two games of this series [{ "selector": ".sjbqx-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "500ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateX(-309px) scale(0.15)", "opacity": 1}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateX(0) scale(1)", "opacity": 1} ] }]

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