{"id":251382,"date":"2021-05-17T06:24:06","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T03:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nets-have-no-excuse-not-to-win-the-nba-championship\/"},"modified":"2021-05-17T06:24:06","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T03:24:06","slug":"nets-have-no-excuse-not-to-win-the-nba-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nets-have-no-excuse-not-to-win-the-nba-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"#Nets have no excuse not to win the NBA championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Nets have no excuse not to win the NBA championship<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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If college basketball belongs to the coaches, the pro game<\/a> belongs to the men who are being coached. The NBA is said to be a players\u2019 league for this reason:<\/p>\n

The team with the best players almost always wins.<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Nets have the best collection of players entering the 2021 postseason. No, before this weekend, Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving had not app<\/a>eared on the court together for three months. And no, their eighth game as a holy hoops trinity \u2014 an uninspiring victory over the Chicago Bulls \u2014 did not answer the chemistry questions that lingered before Harden sat out Sunday night\u2019s 123-109 season-ending victory over Cleveland, shaped by a Harlem Globetrotters-esque play that helped clinch the No. 2 seed in the East.<\/p>\n

Harden\u2019s hamstring should be good to go for the first-round matchup with either Boston or Washington. At this point, only a significant injury can alter the basic truth about who the Nets are, and where they should be going. They have no good excuse not to win the NBA championship. The Knicks are a great story, and a potentially frightening opponent, but the Nets should be the ones to end New York\u2019s biblical basketball drought.<\/p>\n

Kyrie Irving just became only the ninth player ever to finish a season by shooting at least 50 percent from the floor, 40 percent from 3-point range, and 90 percent from the line. He was in the middle of that Globetrotters play, too, when Blake Griffin made a one-handed grab of a loose ball near the Cleveland foul line, and in one motion threw a no-look, behind-the back lob pass to his point guard. Irving made the catch beyond midcourt, and passed without dribbling to Mike James, who threw the ball off the glass and into the hands of a flying Kevin Durant, who thundered the ball home.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext Level,\u201d screamed the incomparable Ian Eagle on the YES broadcast.<\/p>\n

Exactly where the Nets are now heading.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Nets wrapped up their regular season with a win over the Cavaliers on Sunday.<\/figcaption>
Robert Sabo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Irving is 29. Harden is 31. Durant is 32. They still have some fuel left in their primes, and though Philadelphia and Milwaukee will represent formidable challenges, neither franchise has any championship muscle memory.<\/p>\n

No superpower needs to be toppled on this side of the draw. LeBron James is gone from the East, and his defending champion Lakers have the look of a hangover team, leaving the West in the hands of the Utahs, Phoenixes, and Denvers \u2014 strong teams all, but beatable in a best-of-seven with Durant, Harden, and Irving.<\/p>\n

The Nets\u2019 Big 3 are not entirely healthy, but about as healthy as they\u2019ll likely ever be. Sean Marks, the executive who put together this team, called Durant, Harden, and Irving \u201cthree juggernauts.\u201d Those juggernauts are all eligible for contract extensions after the season, on top of the two years remaining on their existing deals.<\/p>\n