Nets’ Kevin Durant on what triggered comeback vs. Raptors
Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant had the final play of their 119-116 win over the Toronto Raptors called for him, but he knew that someone else would have to finish the game. Durant was smart enough to know that the Raptors would double-team him once he caught the ball so the Nets used that to their advantage by having the ball end up in Kyrie Irving’s hands for the first buzzer-beater of his career.
Durant did his part in order to helps the Nets come back from 18 points down by scoring 28 points of his own. He was efficient as always and he finally overcame this tough matchup against the Raptors as the first three games were underwhelming by Durant’s standards. In the first three games of this regular-season series, Durant averaged only 18.7 points per game as the Raptors did a better job of taking him out of those games offensively.
Durant finally broke through the Raptors’ defensive strategy to have a game that he is expected to have given his greatness. Durant reacted to how the Nets played to get back in this game and eventually win:
“Yeah, we ramped up our pressure a little bit, we got into the ball a little bit more, and I think that sped them up, and we were able to get some stops. I wouldn’t say we played harder. I just think we made a quick adjustment to up our pressure on the ball, our point-of-attack defense, we were switching out a little bit. We weren’t playing off our man so they could drive around us and shoot. I just think we were aggressive in everything we did on the defensive side and it fed into the offensive.”
Kevin Durant discusses the Nets’ fourth quarter and his plan to get Kyrie the ball while he had a hot hand. #NETSonYES pic.twitter.com/FAfeVHFE3J
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) December 17, 2022
The last time the Nets had a buzzer-beating game-winner was Mar. 21, 2017.
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