There once was a man called Kyrie, and he played ball with two MVP(s).
The Nets (24-12) visited the Pacers (14-25) on Wednesday, and they emerged victorious in Kyrie Irving’s return to the floor.
The seven time All-Star had 22 points, three rebounds, four assists, and three steals on just two turnovers in his 32 minutes. He was 9-15 on his 2P attempts, which is pretty decent for a guy who hadn’t seen an NBA defense in over 200 days. He had 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, as the Nets outscored the Pacers 35-20.
Over his first two seasons with Brooklyn, Kyrie was really everything they wanted him to be. In his first full campaign last year he joined the 50/40/90 club and was in the 98th percentile for +/- and estimated win shares. In the 750-plus minutes that Irving and Kevin Durant shared the floor in the regular season last year, the Nets outscored their opponents by 9.3 points per 100 possessions.
Kyrie is a very skilled basketball player. The man just happens to also not believe what scientists tell us, and he lives and works in a city where he isn’t allowed to compete in home games.
Up until this point in the year, the Nets had decided that they would prefer the continuity of benching Kyrie completely rather than letting him just play in away games. But Omicron had other plans, and Brooklyn’s coaching staff and front office decided that they would rather have Kyrie around as a body since they’re already paying him and he’s one of the game’s elite scorers.
That’s a fair business decision for the front office, but what happens if things are still the same come the playoffs, and the Nets have a crucial game seven at home where he’s not allowed to play? If Kyrie continues to refuse to get vaccinated, the only thing he can do for his team in an important home game is watch.
And it leads us to weird speculation like this—does Brooklyn even want home court advantage in the playoffs if Irving’s vaccination status doesn’t change?
And it’s not like they’ve been bad without Irving—Brooklyn has the second best record in the East, even though they’ve been missing both Kyrie and sharpshooter Joe Harris. They have the sixth best defense in the league, and if they can be healthy heading into the back end of the season they will be a serious threat in the playoffs.
Durant is having an MVP caliber season, which the Nets have needed. He leads the league in scoring, averaging 29.7 points per game plus 7.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists while shooting 37% from deep and 74% on attempts within three feet and 53% from midrange. He’s just really good at basketball, it turns out.
KD can do everything in his bag with the highest degree of skill and control. His smooth jumpers and methodical space creation are so technically sound that you can’t help but enjoy watching him. He’s one of the most elite scorers of all time, as I wrote after he dropped 51 points on the Pistons in December.
At halftime on Wednesday, the Nets were down 60-73, thanks in large part to the 20 point barrage that Lance Stephenson dropped in his six first quarter minutes. Stephenson, who played with Indiana for his first four seasons plus another run in the 2017-18 campaign, finished with 30 points, just three shy of his career-best from 2016. The Pacers as a team shot 62% overall in the first half, and they made more threes than Brooklyn even attempted. The only reason the Nets were still within striking distance at the half was Durant’s 20 points, three rebounds, and two assists.
But the second half was all Nets.
Durant led the way with 19 points, five rebounds, five assists, and just one turnover on 58% shooting. Kyrie added 14 points of his own, but the real bright spot was the play of DeAndre’ Bembry, who rode the bench for the first half before going 5 for 5 in the second half with 12 points, five rebounds, one assist, two steals, two blocks, and zero turnovers.
Overall, the Nets outscored the Pacers 69-48 in the second half, and they flipped the script on Indiana’s shooting, holding them to just 16% from deep after making 50% of their tries in the first half.
James Harden has taken a while to warm up this year, but the 2018 MVP came to Indiana on a five game streak where he was averaging 32.2 points, 9.6 rebounds, 11.2 assists, and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 45% overall. Not bad.
The Beard more or less continued that trend on Wednesday, with 18 points, five rebounds, six assists, a steal, and just one turnover. But he was also 0 for 4 from deep, so his 10 trips to the line were important and it was good for Brooklyn that he was able to take care of the ball. It certainly wasn’t quite like the four straight games he had with 30 or more points to close December and open the new year, and he doesn’t really look like the guy who averaged 36 PPG with the Rockets in 2019 and 34 PPG in 2020, but that’s okay when you’re playing next to another MVP level talent. At the very least it gives you breathing room.
Durant was still, of course, the star of the show. His scoring was balanced throughout, and he finished the game with 39 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and a steal with just one turnover after halftime. He’s leading the league in scoring and it’s because he’s one of the best shooters from just about any spot on the floor (especially the right side, which he favors).
At the end of the day, it’s KD’s performance that is the single greatest determinant of Brooklyn’s success on any given night. With him on the floor the Nets are scoring 114.4 points per 100 possessions, which would be second to only the Jazz for the best offense in the league. When he’s on the bench, Brooklyn’s offense is one of the worst, on par with the Pelicans, Rockets, Clippers, Magic, Pistons, and Thunder. Want to know what those teams have in common? Losing.
The Nets (24-12) host the Bucks (25-15) on Friday night in a rematch of the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Kyrie Irving will be unable to play against Milwaukee.
What happens when Steph can’t shoot?
The Warriors fell to 29-8 on the season after losing to the Mavericks (20-18) on Wednesday night. Golden State is actually 3-2 in their last five games and they’ve beaten the Suns, Jazz, and Heat in that stretch. They still have the best record in the NBA (tied with Phoenix), and they have the number one defense and ninth best offense. Their offensive rating is actually as close to the #2 ranked Hawks as Atlanta’s is to the #1 ranked Jazz.
But it doesn’t always feel like it.
The problem for this year’s Warriors has never been their defense. They’ve only let their opponents get above 110 points twice in their eight losses and just six times overall. Even in their rough outings against the Nuggets and Mavericks they still held both teams below the 100 point mark and neither team shot better than 41% overall.
The problem that Golden State has had this year is on offense. Their historic back-to-back wins with 39 assists were bookended by losses to Denver and then Dallas in which they had a season-low 20 assists both times.
When you have a generational talent like Steph Curry, it’s easy to feel like you can always come back from a cold half. But what if Steph himself is the one on the cold streak?
Curry, the two-time MVP, is having a down year shooting. He’s been missing floaters and layups like never before, which is strange because he looks strong and controlled the rest of the time and he’s having a career year on the defensive end. He’s also shooting a career-worst on threes, and is currently set to fall outside the top-20 in three point percentage for the first time in his career aside from his five games in the 2019-20 campaign. Per ESPN, Steph’s 8-41 stretch from the floor over the last two games is the single worst shooting percentage in a two-game span that he has ever recorded in his entire career.
However, Steph is still awesome. There’s a reason that you always feel like he can pop off and close a lead at any moment. He’s fifth in the league for scoring, and that career-worst from deep is 38.8%, which is still an efficiency mark that a lot of guys would be happy to have. He actually leads the league in total points scored And he broke out to start the second half against Dallas, targeting Luka Dončić in a pick and roll and draining a step-back three.
After being outscored by 11 points in the second, Golden State made adjustments in the third, producing a 16-0 run that had them up 63-56. It was a reminder that Steph, and the rest of Steve Kerr’s squad, can break out of a slump at any time, and a full strength team might have the talent to give him some breathing room.
Unfortunately for them, Luka is also quite good at basketball, and the Warriors really still couldn’t make many baskets of their own.
After getting held to 39% shooting in the first half (including 1 of 15 from deep), the second half of the game was definitely an improvement, but it wasn’t enough. For starters, they were 31% from beyond the arc after the break, but that’s still well below their season average of 36.6% from deep.
This has been typical of Warriors losses. They keep their opponents in check, but it’s their offense that swings. Golden State is averaging over 114 points in their wins, and just below 96 points in their losses. That’s almost a 20 point swing. They’ve shot almost 39% from deep in their wins, but in their eight losses they’ve made just 29% of their threes.
In the end, the Warriors were outscored 29-15 in the the fourth quarter, and finished the night just 5 of 28 from beyond the arc. They held Dallas to just 38% shooting overall, but it wasn’t enough to stop Luka, Jalen Brunson, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Dorian Finney-Smith, who all scored in double figures. Not with Steph going 5-24 overall and 1-9 from deep.
In the end, Curry finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and a block while coughing up five turnovers.
Golden State is 4-3 when Steph has more than four turnovers, and 24-4 in all of his other appearances. When he shoots above 40% from deep they’re undefeated, and in the 10 games where he’s made less than 30% of his threes they are just 5-5.
Just like with Durant, everything comes down to Steph. When he’s on, it makes everything open up for everyone else on the team. And when he’s off, opposing defenses have a lot more time and energy to focus on everyone else.
I don’t know what it’s going to take, but one thing that might help Steph break out of his slump? The joy—and extra space—that will come when he is finally reunited with Klay Thompson.
If you want to read more about Klay, check out my piece on his return here. If you want more Steph, just stay tuned, or read my piece on the greatest shooter of all time. And, if you want some more thoughts on the supporting cast, try this piece on Gary Payton II or this one on Andrew Wiggins (who were two of the few bright spots during Wednesday’s loss to Dallas).