Nets beginning to jell after win in Portland
Ben Simmons #10 of the Brooklyn Nets dunks during the third quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center on November 17, 2022 in Portland, Oregon. Credit: Getty Images
The Nets were a gigantic mess. That is how almost everyone around the league perceived them as recently as Thursday morning.
“It’s unfortunate. They’re going through a lot over there,” Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said before his team played the Nets in Portland. “It seems like they’re always going through a lot over there.”
Yet in the span of about 24 hours that included an emotional 109-107, last-second win over Billups’ elite Portland team and some news about suspended star Kyrie Irving, the Nets (7-9) are looking like a team starting to sort everything out.
Judging by comments made by coach Jacque Vaughn on Thursday, Irving’s suspension is nearing an end and he is likely to join the team Sunday at Barclays Center against Memphis.
The Nets were an eyesore when Irving was suspended without pay Nov. 4 for linking to an antisemitic movie on his Twitter and Instagram posts a week earlier. Not only did the Nets have the Irving situation to deal with, but they had lost six of eight games, recently had fired coach Steve Nash and had a star in Ben Simmons who looked completely lost out on the floor.
In Irving’s absence, the Nets have gone 5-3, found a coach the players respond to in Vaughn and have seen tangible evidence that Simmons is on his way back to the multidimensional star he was in Philadelphia.
Kevin Durant could barely contain his excitement at the prospect of Irving rejoining a team that is playing well.
“I mean, it’s obviously a great win, and you add somebody that talented, that great at the game of basketball back to your unit, we’re all looking forward to it,” Durant said after the Nets’ victory. “We’re playing a different brand of basketball than we were when he last played, so I know Coach is looking forward to adding another weapon in our offense, and he’s been drawing up some amazing plays for us, so I know he’s got some more stuff up his sleeve for Ky.”
Sunday’s game also could be the first time Nets fans get to see this version of the Big 3 on the floor together when Simmons is looking healthy.
Durant, who at times has seemed as if he is holding this team together with smoke and mirrors, was thrilled with the 15-point, 13-rebound, seven-assist game Simmons had in Portland.
“Incredible. I’m just happy for him because he’s been trying to get his form back, trying to figure his rhythm out,’’ he said. “Tonight, I think he did a good job just talking up, commanding the offense, commanding the team on the defensive side of the ball. He was incredible tonight. So we’re going to keep building on that and hopefully we’re able to get this next one, but he controlled the game and was able to get us back into it.”
It was the second straight impressive game by Simmons, who anchored the Nets’ defense and attacked the basket in a way he never had as a Net.
Most importantly, when the Trail Blazers employed a hack-a-Ben strategy late in the game and sent the notoriously poor free-throw shooter to the foul line, he responded by hitting three of four attempts.
“I love those moments,” Simmons said. “I’m not going to shy away. That was their plan. Obviously, it didn’t work.”
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.
