If you’re searching for the definition of a “trap game,” Wednesday night time’s matchup between the Nets and Atlanta Hawks is about as shut as you’ll get.
The Nets entered Wednesday night time the most well liked workforce in basketball with the league’s longest-standing successful streak. They regarded to increase that streak towards a Hawks workforce enjoying the second leg of a back-to-back.
Without All-Star level guard Trae Young.
That, nevertheless, is why it’s known as a entice recreation — as a result of groups, particularly groups on a roll, tend to decrease their guard towards a perceived lesser opponent.
The Hawks haven’t fared nicely in back-to-backs this season, they usually usually don’t fare nicely when Young isn’t on the ground.
The Nets of previous succumbed to entice video games usually. These Nets proceed to buck that pattern.
Which is why Brooklyn’s 108-107 victory in Atlanta is about as spectacular as any efficiency the workforce has had, save for his or her back-to-back wins over the Bucks and Cavaliers and the 136-133 victory over the Indiana Pacers with none key function gamers out there.
Because the Hawks certainly set a entice that caught the Nets of their tracks — earlier than Brooklyn shook unfastened to make it 10 in a row.
“[Winning 10 in a row] sounds good, especially since there’s just been an up and down vibe with our team the past few years,” Kevin Durant stated postgame. “So it’s good to win a game and have some fun.”
The Hawks constructed a 15-point second-quarter lead partially because of Jacque Vaughn’s first actually complicated transfer since taking Steve Nash’s publish as head coach in Brooklyn. His rotations have historically been tight, even tighter in relation to the 2 superstars: Durant usually performs your entire first quarter, whereas Kyrie Irving historically sits the ultimate jiffy of the primary to guide the reserves within the second quarter whereas Durant will get a relaxation.
On Wednesday, Vaughn veered from the norm. He performed each Irving and Durant your entire opening interval — and sat each of Brooklyn’s stars to start out the second quarter
Of course the Hawks went on a run and constructed a lead 5 factors shy of 20. Vaughn had a lineup of Patty Mills, Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Yuta Watanabe and T.J. Warren on the ground till taking a timeout on the 5:25 mark of the second quarter.
Some believed it was an try to chop down on minutes for Irving, Durant and Royce O’Neale, who every ranked excessive in minutes per recreation and complete minutes earlier than the load managing started. Other Nets’ followers on Twitter imagine it was the group trying to showcase Mills — a veteran level guard who has largely been outdoors of the rotation — for a possible commerce.
Vaughn clarified postgame that each he and Hawks coach Nate McMillan ran their first items the complete 12 minutes of the primary quarter as a result of neither needed to make use of an additional timeout within the opening interval. In the second quarter, Hawks sixth man Bogdan Bogdanovic received unfastened.
The Hawks caught the Nets’ coach within the entice first. The Nets dug themselves a gap they by no means would have been in with regular rotations within the first half.
The second half was enterprise as ordinary. The Nets chipped away at Atlanta’s lead getting into the half and constructed their very own lead as massive as 13. This is what occurs, nevertheless, when you need to expend power to dig your self out of a gap. By the time they did so, the sport grew to become a seesaw affair within the ultimate interval.
Durant completed with 26 factors, 16 rebounds and eight assists on the night time. It marked a career-high in rebounds for Durant, in addition to the second double-double of his profession.
“To be honest I think my teammates did a great job boxing-out,” Durant stated postgame. “And I was just reaping the benefits of that.”
Irving completed with a game-high 28 factors with 5 made threes. Without Young, Dejounte Murray scored 24 and John Collins scored 21 factors for the Hawks. Mills scored 12 off the bench, and Nic Claxton tallied 17 factors, 10 rebounds and one other six blocked photographs.
The Nets now look to make it 11 in a row in Charlotte towards the Hornets on New Years Eve.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com