PHILADELPHIA — At some level, Kevin Durant goes to stroll by that door.
It’s the silver lining in Brooklyn’s 137-133 loss to the 76ers on Wednesday, the crew’s fifth loss within the seven video games they’ve performed since Durant went down with an MCL sprain in a Jan. 8 matchup in opposition to the Miami Heat.
The Nets misplaced however got here again from down 17 and had a possibility to win within the fourth quarter. Against a completely wholesome 76ers crew with three stars in Joel Embiid, James Harden and Tyrese Maxey, the Nets practically stole a victory.
Without their finest participant.
The Nets, nevertheless, have fashioned a united entrance in opposition to the thought of ethical victories. They know issues will look drastically totally different when Durant — who ranks 14th on the NBA’s all-time main scorer’s checklist and averages a hair below 30 factors per sport — returns to the crew, however his return date has but to be decided.
“I think we’re all saying that [it’ll look different when Durant returns], but at the end of day, that’s just not our reality that we can snap our fingers and have him back,” Kyrie Irving mentioned. “We need him to get as heathy as doable and present it to ourselves and to him and our total group. These losses haven’t been ugly. There aren’t any ethical victories on this league, however I can inform you that I’d be positively fearful if we had been shedding by 25-plus or 20-plus or 15-plus.
“Some of our games have just been our mistakes, and I think we can hold each other accountable cause we can control those things. You seen a ton of those in the second or third quarter. If we can eliminate some of those, we’ll be good.”
Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has preached a no-excuses mindset since changing Steve Nash seven video games into the season. With Durant out possible one other two weeks, Vaughn has leaned even additional into that mantra.
“The result is the result and that’s what I told the group after the game,” he mentioned. “This group that’s in the locker room right now, when we line it up against the opponent, expect to win. There’s no if ands or buts. I don’t mention any other thing but the group in the locker room and this group trying to win. So I don’t think about it that way.”
Nets sixth man Seth Curry has stepped up in Durant’s absence. Curry scored a season-high 32 factors in opposition to his former crew on Wednesday. He is averaging 14.8 factors per sport within the month of January and 17.1 factors per sport since Durant sprained his MCL.
Curry mentioned the crew can’t take the stance that each one will probably be higher when Durant returns — true as it could be — as a result of each crew has to compete and win with gamers out of the rotation.
“You can’t look at it like that in the NBA,” he mentioned. “You obtained to exit attempt to play nicely, attempt to win. In the common season, so many of those matchups rely on well being and what not. Last time Kev was right here, we misplaced. It is what it’s.
“You got to go out and compete. [If] we play well, we can compete with anybody like we showed over the past week. So we got to have that mindset where there’s no excuses.”
Without Durant, Curry mentioned the burden falls on everybody else to select up the slack.
“Obviously Kyrie’s got to do a lot, creating offense for us,” he mentioned. “Ben’s obtained to assist us out and Clax doing a superb job making performs with the handoffs and rolling. We simply obtained to create offense other ways.
“The load changes on guys like myself and [we] try to be aggressive and see what happens. We’ve got to stick to it for 48-minute games. On different nights, everybody got to help us out in different ways.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com