Nets forced to lean hard on Kevin Durant for offense
Nets forward Kevin Durant controls the ball against Lakers forward Troy Brown Jr. during the first half of an NBA game in Los Angeles on Sunday. Credit: AP/Ashley Landis
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Nets may have one of the best players in the history of the game in Kevin Durant, but it’s getting harder and harder for them to hold it together with just Durant, smoke and mirrors.
That was one of the biggest takeaways from their 116-103 loss on Sunday to a Lakers team that was without LeBron James, had won only two games and was tied for last place with the worst record in the NBA.
The Nets went against the Lakers without Kyrie Irving, who missed his sixth straight game after being suspended on Nov. 3 after posting a link to an antisemitic film on his Instagram and Twitter accounts. They will be without him again Tuesday night against the Kings, listing him as out/team suspension on their injury report Monday.
He wasn’t the only player the Nets and Durant were missing on Sunday. Also out were Ben Simmons, a late scratch with a sore left knee, and Seth Curry, who was held out because it was the second game of a back-to-back and he is easing back from offseason ankle surgery. Center Nic Claxton also left Sunday’s game after getting hit in the eye early in the third quarter.
The good news for the Nets is that Claxton and Curry are listed as probable against the Kings. Simmons, however, remains questionable.
With Claxton and Simmons out, Durant had to do double duty on defense, pull significant time at point guard plus carry the Nets offensively. He responded with 31 points, nine rebounds and seven assists but got little offensive support from his remaining teammates.
That Durant was the sole target of the Lakers’ defense was at times comically on display. The Lakers’ bench wildly cheered for Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley, his two main defenders.
“So it’s funny when the whole team [was] coaching up on my possessions,” Durant said. “I think it’s cute. It shows they got a lot of respect for my game . . . I mean when the whole team is focused on you that much, it’s good to have that kind of mind power with people sometimes.”
Beverley and Durant continued to go toe-to-toe on Twitter after the game. When a video of Beverley saying that his “guarding KD” was the key to the game was tweeted with the comment “he’s not lying,” Durant responded, “Yes, he is.”
Durant has scored at least 26 points in every game this season, and Nets coach Jacque Vaughn knew he had little chance of winning without him. Durant didn’t get his usual spell on the bench at the end of the third quarter and played a game-high 37:50.
Vaughn, who has a 4-3 record since taking over for Steve Nash, would not have had to lean so heavily on Durant if the team’s outside shooters had been a little more on target.
“We need a few of those to go in,” Vaughn said. “I think we were 2-for-16 at halftime with some really good looks. It’s amazing how that could have changed the tempo and direction of the game.”
The Nets are 1-1 on their West Coast trip, which concludes Thursday night in Portland.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
