For third straight playoff game, Nets star Kevin Durant doesn't have it

There have been so many times when Kevin Durant has bailed this team out.

There have been so many times when it seems as if his Nets teammates have stood back in awe as Durant worked his magic and made up for poor defense, injuries and missing superstars.

There have been so many times when the Nets looked as if they were in deep trouble but really weren’t because they had one of the greatest scorers in the history of the game on their roster.

This is not going to be one of those times.

The Nets, a team that was the Vegas favorite to win it all at the start of the season, are one loss away from being knocked out of the playoffs in the first round after losing to the Boston Celtics, 109-103, on Saturday night at Barclays Center.

Game 4 is Monday night in Brooklyn. No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series.

The big reason the Celtics are on the verge of a sweep is that they have found a way to make the Nets’ superstar shooter look like a mere mortal. Durant, 33, may have met the biggest challenge of his career in a defensive-minded Boston team led by a coach who has an insider’s knowledge of his game and seems determined to stop him at all costs.

Durant, who averaged 34.3 points in 12 playoff games last season, has scored 23, 27 and 16 in his three playoff games this year. He is shooting 19-for-52, and in Game 3, he took only 11 shots, making six. It’s hard to win a game when your superstar takes only 11 shots.

“That’s a [expletive] game, man, a [expletive] game,” Durant said. “ . . . I probably should have taken more shots. I’m thinking too much this series. I need to go out there with no thoughts in my head and just play.”

The Celtics have been throwing fresh big body after fresh big body on Durant, putting pressure on him the entire game, not just when he has the ball. Yet it’s not fair to blame Durant for the fact that the Nets, who had the best record in the Eastern Conference at the end of January, are facing the humiliating prospect of ending their season by being swept in the first round.

In fact, Blake Griffin, who played for the first time since April 2, said he believes the team didn’t have “the right spirit” out on the floor.

Durant did not disagree.

“You can say that after a loss, I guess,” he said. “We all want to win. You can say that after a loss.”

Celtics rookie coach Ime Udoka, who was an assistant with the Nets last season, was asked in his pregame news conference what he likes about the way his team is playing Durant.

“I would say our physicality and attention to where he is at all times by not only the initial player guarding him but the team in general,” he said.

Of course, one of the ways to muck up the Celtics’ defensive plan would be for other players to start knocking down shots. The only one to really answer that bell Saturday was Bruce Brown, who finished with 26 points. Kyrie Irving scored 16.

“We can’t give the ball to KD or Kyrie and all four guys stand there,” Goran Dragic said. “ . . . We need to help them as much as possible and that it’s not only on those two guys, you know? It’s a team sport, so everybody has to contribute.”

Everyone has to contribute and contribute fast. It doesn’t look as if it’s going to happen for the Nets this year, and there will be a lot to sort out after the last game is played.

Sort they must. Durant isn’t getting any younger, and the window of opportunity for the Nets to win it all with him gets smaller every year.

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

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.