{"id":255107,"date":"2021-05-21T03:22:47","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T00:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nets-biggest-threat-to-nba-playoff-failure-is-themselves\/"},"modified":"2021-05-21T03:22:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T00:22:47","slug":"nets-biggest-threat-to-nba-playoff-failure-is-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nets-biggest-threat-to-nba-playoff-failure-is-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"#Nets’ biggest threat to NBA playoff failure is themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Nets’ biggest threat to NBA playoff failure is themselves<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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The Celtics? The Celtics have a famous name. They have a famous uniform. They have the winking leprechaun, and the parquet floor. The Celtics have an awfully crowded ceiling at TD Garden \u2014 lots of retired numbers, lots of championship banners. But the Celtics aren\u2019t half as good as the Nets.<\/p>\n

The Bucks? The Bucks have Giannis Antetokounmpo, and that\u2019s a nice asset. They have a fine coach in Mike Budenholzer. They have some unfinished business, having entered the playoffs the past few years prohibitive favorites in the East and getting taken out early. But the Bucks aren\u2019t as good as the Nets; they will also have their hands full with the Heat.<\/p>\n

The Sixers? Look, the Sixers are the No. 1 seed in the East. They have Joel Embiid, either 1 or 1A in this year\u2019s MVP race, and Ben Simmons, who\u2019s as much fun to watch as any player in the NBA. They have Doc Rivers, who is both terrific and on a redemptive mission of his own. But the Sixers aren\u2019t the Nets on both teams\u2019 best day. They just aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

And the crowded pile of pretenders out west? We\u2019ll worry about them later.<\/p>\n

No. The Nets\u2019 biggest impediment to fulfilling their manifest basketball destiny is the Nets. The Nets are the only team that matches up with the Nets, and the Nets are, in truth, the only team that can interrupt what ought to be a two-month joyride to Borough Hall and a crowning parade, New York\u2019s first basketball title since the Nets ruled Hempstead Turnpike in 1976.<\/p>\n

\"Nets\"
Kevin Durant walks off the court.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If the Nets are, indeed, the league\u2019s new Objects of Scorn, then there have already been plenty of folks figuring out plenty of ways this can go sideways. There are already plenty of hopeful sentences that begin this way: \u201cIf Kemba can \u2026\u201d or, \u201cIf Giannis can \u2026\u201d or, \u201cIf Doc can \u2026\u201d And those sentences are all adorable.<\/p>\n

And perfectly useless.<\/p>\n

You want to root against the Nets?<\/p>\n

Then you have to root for the Nets.<\/p>\n

Because only the Nets will stop the Nets. There are some secondary and tertiary sources of self-sabotage available \u2014 they do not play defense well, at all, even when at full strength; they are still led by a neophyte coach; they still have limited reps as a full unit. But there is the one 8,000-pound purple elephant that is the most obvious sentry between now and a July jubilee down by the Promenade:<\/p>\n