Nets swept by Celtics in first round to end disappointing season
The Nets started the season as the betting favorites. They ended it the butt of jokes.
Brooklyn, a supposed superteam expected to win the title, suffered a humbling 116-112 Game 4 loss to the Celtics. A first-round sweep brought their season to an ignominious end Monday night before a sellout crowd of 18,099 at Barclays Center.
“Just disappointment, sadness,” Kyrie Irving said. “But also more importantly on the positive side is motivation. It’s just burning in my heart right now. … So many people wanted to see us fail at this juncture, picked us as contenders and have so much to say at this point. So I’m just using that as fuel for the summer.”
It marked a bitter final chapter in an unpredictable and unprecedented season that had more melodrama than even bad reality TV could muster. Except it was real.
From Irving’s vaccine refusal that led to him missing over 50 games and James Harden demanding a trade. That deal brought back Ben Simmons, who still hasn’t played due to physical and mental woes.
On Monday, this wild ride finally went off the rails.
“It was really heavy emotionally this season. We all felt it. I felt like I was letting the team down at a point where I wasn’t able to play,” Irving said. “It became a distraction at times. As you see, we had some drastic changes. We lost a franchise player and got a franchise player back, but didn’t get a chance to see him on the floor.”
Or even on the bench, with Simmons not sitting alongside his teammates as they were eliminated.
The Celtics go on to the second round to face the 76ers or Raptors. The underachieving Nets go on to an early offseason to face some tough questions.
Kevin Durant finally broke out of a slump with 39 points, but had a costly missed free throw with 22 seconds left. And that paled in comparison with Nic Claxton going 1-of-11 at the stripe, tying Wilt Chamberlain (May 8, 1970) for the worst performance in playoff history (minimum 10 attempts), according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Seth Curry added 23 points and Irving 20.
“There’s a lot of stuff that factors in to why we lose, but they were just a better team,” Durant said. “They played that way.”
That’s an understatement. Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 29 points before fouling out, the Nets got outrebounded 45-38 and struggled versus Boston’s length.
“I’m the guy who doesn’t need excuses. I’ve been part of teams that we didn’t look for that and I’m not for those excuses,” Goran Dragic said. “We were just not good enough and they were just better.”
Andre Drummond logged just 3:36 in ceding time to Claxton. Steve Nash went small but still didn’t get great spacing and suffered defensively on the other end.
The Nets trailed by as much as 15, and were down 90-78 after the third quarter. They did get three quick buckets with a Durant fadeaway making it 90-84, but the Nets couldn’t string together enough stops to get over the hump.
A 3 by Marcus Smart (20 points, 11 assists) left the Nets down 101-91 with 6:54 left.
Brooklyn had a last gasp rally, an 8-1 run. Durant found Dragic for a 3 that pulled the Nets within 102-99 with 5:24 remaining.
Durant hit Irving for a 3 to make it 109-106, and sank a midrange floater moments later to pull Brooklyn within 109-108. But that’s as close as it got.
Jaylen Brown (22 points) got free for a layup with a minute left. And Durant went to the line down 111-108 with 22 seconds to play but hit just one of two.
Even after forcing a Smart miss, the Nets couldn’t corral the rebound and let Al Horford get a tip-in that iced it.
It was a sad end to a season that started with the Nets’ original Big 3 that included Harden, the superteam that never was.
“No regrets. S–t happens. No crying over spilled milk. It’s about how we can progress and get better,” Durant said. “No time to feel regret or be too pissed off about it. Find a solution to get better, proactive as an organization and get better. … We can’t have no regrets on what we did. S–t just played out the way it played.”
