Kyrie Irving’s tenure in Brooklyn has been a sequence of controversies and aggravations. But he can declare one very constructive distinction, which is very vital to Nets followers:
Utter domination of the New York Knicks.
Irving beat the Knicks once more Saturday in Barclays Center, dropping 21 of his 32 factors within the fourth quarter — together with a pair of dagger 3s — sending swaths of sad followers in orange and blue apparel to the exits.
“I love beating the Knicks and playing against them,” Irving mentioned.
The Knicks (27-24) dropped their ninth straight to the crosstown rivals, though ‘rivalry’ doesn’t actually apply to this matchup. It’s extra of a bullying scenario at this level. Dating again to his profession with the Cavs, Irving has received 16 of his final 18 matchups in opposition to the Knicks.
He was unguardable Saturday down the stretch, choosing up the slack with Kevin Durant out.
“We were running defenders at him,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau mentioned. “It’s who he is. He’s not going to stop moving, either.”
The Knicks had been pressured to play catch-up after an uninspiring begin, with Thibodeau acknowledging that Ben Simmons being unavailable (knee soreness) threw the sport plan off kilter. In different phrases, the Nets changed a non-shooter (Simmons) with a shooter (Seth Curry). Then they buried a ridiculous 55% of their 40 3-point makes an attempt.
“I thought offensively we were fine but we got in a hole early and we didn’t cover the line as well as we could have or should have,” Thibodeau mentioned. “I don’t know if we weren’t fairly prepared. There had been loads of shifting elements as a result of we didn’t know who was in or out.
“So we knew the personnel would change and we would change who was on the floor with different groupings. And the way Curry has been playing and, of course, Irving puts so much pressure on you we thought the 3 would be something we had to be aware of and we got hurt by it.”
The Barclays Center crowd included the elites of their fields, Mariano Rivera and Mike Krzyzewski. It didn’t embody Knicks proprietor James Dolan, who revealed he’s by no means been to the world throughout the Manhattan Bridge as a result of he wouldn’t really feel comfy.
His group isn’t very comfy, both. The Knicks have only one victory in Brooklyn in 5 years.
“We weren’t good,” mentioned Julius Randle. “Closing out, sense of urgency, none of that. We have to be better.”
For the Knicks, Brunson scored 26 and Barrett added 24. But the issue was protection. Coming off consecutive victories in opposition to Eastern Conference elites Boston and Cleveland, the Knicks laid a dud of their first recreation on ABC.
And Irving was their largest drawback.
”I don’t actually know what you’re presupposed to do,” Barrett mentioned. “I mean, Quentin [Grimes] was playing great defense. It’s Kyrie Irving, man. He’s gonna make those shots. We had to try to get the ball out of his hands as much as we can, but it wasn’t like he was getting easy layups or anything. He really made some tough shots. So, tip your hat off to him.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com