Kevin Durant played a season-high 40 minutes in Saturday’s win over Orlando, and James Harden checked off 40 as well in his Brooklyn debut. The two former MVPs combined for 74 of Brooklyn’s 122 points, and 50 of the 70 they scored in the second half, and soon enough, Kyrie Irving will be back in the mix.
But afterwards, both Durant and head coach Steve Nash emphasized the importance and value of contributions down the length of the roster.
“It's more than just us three on this basketball team,” said Durant. “We're gonna need Joe Harris to continue to knock down shots, (Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot). We're gonna need DeAndre (Jordan) to roll to the rim hard and our bigs to come in and help set screens and rebound. I think it's a group effort and that's going to open up the floor for all of us. It's having high IQ guys who are unselfish who want to make the extra passes. We'll see how it plays out. Each game is different I think we want to approach each game with that attitude of just all of us being who we are and being aggressive and being on one string. We'll see how it goes."
Against Orlando, Harris had 17 points while making 4-of-9 3-pointers, and he’s shooting 49.4 percent from 3-point range, 10th in the league, as well as 53.5 percent on catch-and-shoot threes, a nice number to carry when matched with Durant, Harden, and Irving. Jeff Green scored 10 on 4-of-6 shooting, and Bruce Brown had another efficient game off the bench with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting and five rebounds in 23 minutes. Brown is getting 9.4 rebounds per 36 minutes; among guards, only Russell Westbrook and Luka Doncic have a higher rate.
“It can't just be your top guy, your top two, your top three guys; you’ve got to play team basketball, everyone's got to be a threat,” said Nash. “Everyone's got to play their role, know their role. And so those are things we have to figure out. But I thought it was exceptional tonight. You know, Joe played well, Bruce played well, you know, Jeff gave us some important veteran experience and you go down the line guys contributed. So it was, I think, a game that could have gone the other way. It took us a while to find it and to pull away. But it wasn't clean at all. It wasn't easy. But, you know, that's a tribute to their team. And, but we got a lot to build up.”
With the Nets having dealt away four players to acquire Harden, there are three roster spots open, and Spencer Dinwiddie and Nic Claxton are out with injuries. There’s a void there, and a trickle-down effect throughout the roster to make up those minutes and contributions.
“I think there’s opportunity there for guys, especially in the short term, while we kind of figure out where we are and who we are collectively,” said Nash. ‘Some guys, like the other night you saw Chris Chiozza get more minutes, you saw Reggie Perry get minutes, everyone’s minutes went up a little bit. Now obviously, James coming to the team knocks that down a little, Kyrie coming back knocks that down a little, but there’s still room to experiment and give people different looks at different times, so I think everyone’s going to get opportunities here. In a sense, we start over, but we’re also fortunate for the time we have had together and what we’ve learned about the team we have so far.”
With the loss of Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince in particular, the importance of Green and DeAndre Jordan grows. As a forward and center, Green absorbs minutes that belonged to both players. He played 32 minutes against the Knicks on Wednesday and 30 against Orlando after having played 30 minutes just once in Brooklyn’s first 12 games. Jordan has returned to the starting center role, where he’s backed up by the rookie Reggie Perry.
“I think DJ can play a great role for this team,” said Nash. “He's still shown to be really effective but I think we still go with a smaller lineup at times. I don't think he needs to play 30 minutes a night. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. With his age, playing four games a week, playing a high load, we don't want to overtax him there so he can be effective in the spurts he does play.”
D’ANTONI AND HARDEN
The move to Brooklyn reunites James Harden not just with former Oklahoma City teammates Kevin Durant and Jeff Green, but his former Houston head coach Mike D’Antoni, now a Nets assistant.
In playing the last four seasons under D’Antoni, Harden averaged 32.4 points, won three scoring titles and one assist title, was named to four All-NBA First Teams, and won the 2017-18 Most Valuable Player Award.
“Mike's an unbelievable coach,” said Harden. “He's been doing it for a very, very long time. Obviously Mike is a factor. Being comfortable with him being comfortable with Kevin, knowing Kyrie, just those four pieces right there made it easy. Obviously them being in Brooklyn, for me it was a no-brainer.”
Nash, of course, played for D’Antoni as well, back in Phoenix. Like Harden, he took his individual game to new heights playing for D’Antoni. Both he and Harden won MVPs with D’Antoni as their head coach.
“I think he's an invaluable resource,” said Nash. “I think it would be silly not to lean on Mike for all his experience with James and his familiarity and what James likes and how he works best so those are conversations that I’ll have with James, that we’ll all have as a group and Mike with his insight and his relationship with James is invaluable.”
KYRIE IRVING UPDATE
Kyrie Irving was listed as out due to health and safety protocols on Saturday as he prepares to return. He has been listed as questionable for Monday's game against Milwaukee. With on-court practice time for the team limited, Steve Nash said the team wants to build Irving up properly through individual work and some time with the team’s “stay-ready” group.
“Hopefully, we’re close,” said Nash. “I can’t really give you a firm update on that. We have to assess that as we go. We do want to make sure he ramps accordingly so that he’s not susceptible to unnecessary injury and protect him the best we can. But hopefully, it will be a short period of time. That is to be determined, though.”
NIC CLAXTON UPDATE
Second-year forward and center Nic Claxton has been out since the beginning of the season with right knee tendinopathy.
“I think Nic is probably closer to the mid-season break than he is to now,” said Nash. “Sometime in February for sure. But no setbacks, just working through it.”
ABOUT THE BUCKS
The Bucks are 9-4 and one of the strongest offensive teams in the NBA. They’re first in offensive rating (118.1), second in points (120.2), third in field goal percentage (48.9), second in 3-point percentage (41.1), and first in effective field goal percentage (58.4). The defensive end isn’t bad either, with a seventh-ranked defensive rating (107.3) that contributes to Milwaukee’s No. 1 net rating (10.8). Along the way, the Bucks are fifth in both rebounds per game (48.2) and rebounding percentage (51.8), fifth in steals (9.1) and seventh in assists (26.2). Giannis Antetokounmpo leads Milwaukee with 26.6 points and 10.0 rebounds per game while shooting 53.5 percent. Khris Middleton is averaging 21.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.7 assists, shooting 53.0 percent overall and 46.8 percent from 3-point range. Jrue Holiday averages 15.2 points and 5.0 assists and is second in the NBA with 2.2 steals per game.
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