Nets fall to Wizards as Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant miss last-second jumpers
Which of the two duos would prevail: Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, or Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook?
Not the duo that presides in Brooklyn. The Wizards pulled away with a 123-122 win on the road Sunday.
Beal dished to Thomas Bryant for a dunk that gave the Wizards a one-point lead with under 10 seconds to go. Irving attempted to respond on a pull-up three, but missed. Then Durant grabbed the rebound and pulled-up from the foul line.
He missed, too, and the Nets, as a result, have fallen below .500 with a 3-4 record on the season.
Durant nearly had his most efficient game of the season, off to an 8-of-12 start, but he missed his final three shots in the fourth quarter. Fifteen shots is nowhere near enough attempts from the floor for a four-time scoring champion, two-time Finals MVP and former MVP. As he settles into his life after Achilles surgery, that average shot count should come closer to 20 per game.
Kyrie Irving also rebounded from back-to-back suboptimal performances, including one of his worst as a Net on Friday, a 6-of-21 shooting night in an 18-point loss to the Hawks. On Sunday, he ran it up for 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting, before missing the shot that could have put the Nets up two.
Beal finished with 27 points on 25 shot attempts, and Westbrook recorded 24 points, 10 assists and five rebounds against Durant, his former teammate dating back to their days playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Caris LeVert’s struggles continued, shooting just 3-of-13 from the field for six points. He ended up on the bench down the stretch in favor of Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, who had a bounce-back performance after combining for just 2-of-12 shooting from the floor in the previous two games against the Hawks. He scored 14 points against the Wizards on 4-of-5 shooting from three, and scored on a cherry-pick layup that gave Brooklyn a 122-121 lead in the final 30 seconds of the fourth quarter.
The Nets just couldn’t get a stop. Stops have not come easily in Brooklyn.
The Nets continued to struggle against floor-spacing big men, once again falling victim to Thomas Bryant, who scored 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting.
Wizards forward Rui Hachimura routinely scored over Irving, forcing the off-ball switch onto the low post, then using his size and strength in the low post. Hachimura, in his second year, is growing into a more than capable player in Washington. He was strong Sunday, to the tune of 15 points on the night.
Neither has chemistry. Nets players were confused on the floor to the tune of 20 turnovers (versus Washington’s seven) and a ton of blown defensive assignments that left Durant chewing out his teammates. The Nets are very clearly still under construction, but it’s unclear if the pieces to finalize the project are on the roster.
