With 10 games remaining in the regular season, the Brooklyn Nets are already the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference in the playoffs.
They got here through a lot of ups and downs as they played with top players who were always out due to injuries one day or the other.
THE BROOKLYN NETS STARTED THE SEASON WITHOUT KEVIN DURANT, AND KYRIE IRVING MISSED OCCASIONAL GAMES
When Durant returned, James Harden had missed games due to a hamstring injury and was still out.
Even after returning, Durant is still missing games due to injury management.
He will miss tonight’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers to rest and is already ruled out due to injury management.
Even after Kevin’s return, Kyrie Irving has had groin issues and has missed games on occasion.
He was out of the latest game against the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night due to soreness.
Kevin Durant set a season-high with 42 points in 36 minutes against the Indiana Pacers.
As a result, the Nets prevailed in Irving’s absence.
THE NETS NOW FACE THE PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS WITHOUT KEVIN DURANT.
“Tomorrow will be a different challenge,” Nash said after Brooklyn’s fourth straight victory.
“We’ll see who’s available and how everything looks, and then we’ll play a really good Portland team and try to put on a good show.”
“What else can I say? “I have the privilege of coaching Kevin Durant,” Nash explained. “When you put him in the lineup, good things happen.”
Durant had 10 assists, made 16-of-24 field goals, and made all eight free throws in a strong all-around performance against Indiana.
The Nets have ruled out Kevin Durant, who has stated that he will follow the coaching staff for the Thursday game.
“I’m going to follow the coaching staff’s lead,” Durant said of playing on Friday. “My teammates understand the situation, so I just have to be ready for anything, I feel like.”
And when I’m on the field, I like to take things one possession at a time and see what happens.”
“I had to come back in the fourth for the next game, and maybe I could have negotiated it a little better if I hadn’t had to come back in the fourth.”
However, it is what it is. I tried to take it one possession at a time and simply trust what the coaching and training staff wanted me to do.”
The Nets sidelined Kyrie against Thursday’s match against the Pacers when the Nets won over the Pacers.
“Kyrie we will have to assess as well … but my thinking on that is hopefully Ky feels much better [Friday] and can play,” Nash said. “I’d say my vote would be likely that Kevin does not play the second of a back-to-back.”
HOWEVER, FOR TONIGHT’S GAME AGAINST THE TRAILBLAZER, THE NETS ARE NOT SIDELINING KYRIE IRVING
Brooklyn coach Steve Nash preferred seeing Irving on the floor versus Portland and Kevin Durant seated on the bench.
Nash also added he would rather have Blake Griffin play for the second straight night than Durant, who recently returned from a thigh injury and missed 23 games with a hamstring injury earlier in the season.
According to the list of players ruled out for the game against the Blazers, Kyrie will receive help from Blake Griffin as he is not ruled out.
Kyrie will also have Alize Johnson who had the best night on Thursday after giving a stellar performance, scoring 20 points and a career-high 21 rebounds.
“The energy was there from the moment I walked into the building,” Johnson said. “I was ready to go out there and prove that I belong.”
Even though the Nets already reached the playoffs but this doesn’t mean that they will have an easy time beating other teams.
Now the Nets officially reported Kevin Durant sidelined for the match.
The Nets face the Blazers.
Portland Trail Blazers are one of such teams that are not easy to beat.
They are also having great performance with back-to-back 21-point road wins over the Pacers and Memphis Grizzles.
“We were definitely ready to play,” veteran forward Carmelo Anthony said after Wednesday’s 130-109 win in Memphis.”
“You could sense it. You could feel it that we were locked in, and we knew how important this game was for us.”
Portland (34-28) trails the Dallas Mavericks by one game in the battle for the No 6 seed in the Western Conference. As the top six teams avoid the play-in round.
The Blazers are also teams that are filled with great scorers.
Most recently as well the Trail Blazers had three 20-point scorers against Memphis; CJ McCollum had 26 points and six assists.
While Norman Powell tallied 24 and Damian Lillard added 23.
As Portland led by as many as 33 in the first half before rolling to the blowout victory.
“To me, it’s a five-man defense so everybody has to do their jobs,” Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said.
“For me, the first half was about team defense and that includes transition defense.
The Blazers are looking for payback to the Nets.
As the Nets defeated host Portland 116-112 on March 23 without Durant and Irving, James Harden led the way by scoring 25 points and matching his career-best of 17 assists.
But unfortunately, Harden will miss his 13th straight game on Friday with a hamstring injury.
Injury News from the Nets
In addition to James and Durant, Bruce Brown and others
Kevin is out against the Blazers due to right knee soreness (source: twitter.com), and Nic Claxton is out to follow health and safety protocols.
Chris Chiozza is out with a right-hand fracture, while Spencer Dinwiddie is out with a partially torn ACL.
With so many players out, everything is now in Kyrie’s hands. However, this is not the first time Kyrie has been left alone with the responsibility.
He has led the Nets to victories when both James and Kevin are unavailable. Tonight’s game will also see the return of Kyrie and the resting of Kevin.
Learn more about: Eleanor Tomlinson, Yuji Itadori