It’s not a coincidence that the Nets’ best offensive performance through three playoff games, their Game 2 win over the Celtics, was also their most balanced.
That’s what happens when the Big 3 of James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving aren’t monopolizing the ball and field-goal attempts.
Friday night wasn’t one of those nights. The ball stuck. The Big 3 did most of the scoring. And the Nets lost for the first time this postseason, dropping Game 3 to the Celtics, 125-119, at TD Garden in Boston as their lead in this opening-round, best-of-seven series was cut in half to 2-1.
“I thought for big portions we got a little stagnant,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “We got away from our movement. I thought James was scoring in isolation, Kevin was scoring in isolation, but I still think that we can be more difficult to guard in general if we move the ball and get to isolations as a second resort.”
Harden poured in 41 points, Durant had 39 and Irving chipped in 16. But the Nets had just 16 assists on 38 made field goals — 15 fewer than they notched in Game 2, when six Nets scored in double figures.
That wasn’t the case Friday. Nets not named Harden, Irving and Durant combined for just 23 points. After exploding in Game 2 for 25 points, Joe Harris managed just eight points on 3-for-9 shooting. Blake Griffin was a non-factor, making just 1 of 5 shots. Expected to help fill the void left by injured key reserve Jeff Green (left foot), Nic Claxton posted a minus-21 rating in 16 minutes.
“It was huge,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said of shutting down the Nets’ supporting cast. “Those guys hurt us in Game 2, especially Joe, [who] went off for seven 3’s in Game 2. They fed off that.”
Durant acknowledged the problem. There was too much one-on-one, not nearly enough movement with and without the ball.
“Again on the offensive side, just keep moving [the] basketball,” Durant said. “You know we’ve got special players here that can make tough shots. But we want to continue to move the ball.”
When everyone was involved and the ball moved in Game 2, the Nets’ offense looked unstoppable. In the other two games, they produced far worse offensive performances. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence.
“We lose a game and I got one assist, and we got 16 as a team, you can pinpoint that,” Durant said. “But [there’s] a lot of stuff in the games that we could be better at. And that’s definitely one of those things we want to emphasize is continue to move the basketball.”