The wild saga that is the Brooklyn Nets is still ongoing, and quite confusing.
The team is built around two of the league’s most skilled players in former Longhorn Kevin Durant and Kyire Irving, but even with two of the best players to ever grace the court, the Nets have major flaws.
These issues are being exposed in the NBA playoffs against the Boston Celtics, in which they are now down 0-2 in the series.
Although it was the worst game Irving has played in quite some time, it was Durant who FOX Sports analyst Skip Bayless targeted in a barrage of tweets.
Kevin Durant is just getting BULLIED and he has FOLDED. No mas. Make that The Softest Player on the Planet. So disappointing.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) April 21, 2022
The reason for the harsh tweets from Bayless was Durant’s scoring effort of 27 points, which came on 4-of-17 shooting (23.5%) and the fact that he was held without a single bucket in the second half going 0-for-9.
While this was an uncharacteristically bad performance for Durant, who single-handedly almost beat the would-be NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks in last year’s playoffs, he and Irving certainly need to step up in order to advance this postseason.
Irving finished the game with 10 points in 40 minutes of run, while only contributing one assist. It is certainly a tall task for the two stars to outduel the Celtics who ranked No. 6 in team defense in the regular season, and No. 3 in the playoffs in the same category.
It also doesn’t help that the Celtics are worlds deeper than the Nets, and have the ability to outsize Brooklyn with Al Hofford, Grant Williams, and Daniel Theis, all while Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown find their stride on both ends.
The Celtics played Durant in such a physical manner in game two that he was getting easily pushed off his spots, and even had his jumper blocked by Tatum which is a rare sighting.
The Nets two stars in Durant and Irving will surely need to shoot the ball better in the next couple games, but it would also help if Ben Simmons could finally make his return and provide a much needed defensive presence.
While it wasn’t Durant’s best showing, Bayless’ claim of him being the softest player on the planet is way off base. The two-time champion has consistently shown he is built for the moment, and will have to do so again, otherwise their season will come to an end very soon.
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