{"id":279522,"date":"2021-06-21T02:30:59","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T23:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nets-are-reminder-nothing-is-a-sure-thing\/"},"modified":"2021-06-21T02:30:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T23:30:59","slug":"nets-are-reminder-nothing-is-a-sure-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nets-are-reminder-nothing-is-a-sure-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"#Nets are reminder nothing is a sure thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Nets are reminder nothing is a sure thing<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

The Nets\u2019 shaky health cost them a berth in the Eastern Conference finals. There\u2019s little question about that. The Bucks showed heart and guts and resilience, they got big game<\/a>s when they needed them from Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo. They held serve all three games at Milwaukee\u2019s Fiserv Forum; the Nets couldn\u2019t quite stay invincible at Barclays Center.<\/p>\n

All true. All of it. And it doesn\u2019t exactly take a Bob Beamon-esque leap of faith to say that a healthy Kyrie Irving and a healthy James Harden flanking a healthy Kevin Durant would\u2019ve figured out a way to win, at best, one of the games in Wisconsin and, at least, a decisive Game 7 in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

But did the injuries cost the Nets their first NBA championship, which was what so much of the post-Game 7 buzz was about? Steve Nash was asked if he could possibly imagine the ride of these 2020-21 Nets ending short of raising the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy and etching their names into the NBA history books.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could, actually,\u201d Nash admitted. \u201cIt\u2019s the NBA. Anything can happ<\/a>en.\u201d<\/p>\n

And they happened, with multiplicity, to the Nets. Harden\u2019s injury. Irving\u2019s injury. The Bucks\u2019 escape from Game 3, when they were two possessions away from falling behind 0-3. Durant, at last, running out of fuel at the very end of Game 7, going 0-for-6 in overtime after making that epic game-tying bomb at the end of regulation.<\/p>\n

Anything can happen?<\/p>\n

You bet it can.<\/p>\n

\"Nets\"
Kevin Durant (l.) and the Nets lost Game 7 to the Bucks on Saturday.<\/figcaption>
Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And that\u2019s why it\u2019s hard to say authoritatively that the Nets would have won the championship if all their parts had stayed intact. They would still have been betting favorites. If the team that emerged from the Celtics series<\/a> and came out of the Bucks series the same way, it would have been an interesting debate.<\/p>\n

But if we\u2019re going to dip a toe in that world, we need to immerse completely.<\/p>\n

And that means accepting a couple of other best-case scenarios:<\/p>\n

Like Jamal Murray not blowing out his knee for Denver late in the regular season. Like Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell not getting hurt at the worst possible time for Utah, which finished four games better than the Nets in the far stronger conference. Like Boston having a healthy Kemba Walker and Jaylen Brown, which might have made that first-round series a bit more strenuous (and tenuous, as far as the Nets\u2019 health is concerned).<\/p>\n

Oh, no. We aren\u2019t done yet.<\/p>\n

There were the defending-champion Lakers, clearly compromised by the absence of Anthony Davis for one playoff game and the physical limitations of both he and LeBron James. And Joel Embiid\u2019s knee, which causes Sixers fans to cross themselves every time he jumps (and lands). And the uncertain status of both the Clippers\u2019 Kawhi Leonard (knee) and the Suns\u2019 Chris Paul (COVID-19 protocol).<\/p>\n

So, yes. Anything can happen.<\/p>\n

The Nets are in a complicated spot as they ponder their approach next year. Clearly now that all of the Big 3 have difficult injury histories, they will be even more vigilant about properly managing a regular season next year that will grow by 10 games. Folks will howl about the fact that they play only half those games together (if that), but the Nets\u2019 entire business plan revolves around those three players.<\/p>\n

Better or worse.<\/p>\n

Better and worse.<\/p>\n

And the thing is: there\u2019s no guarantee. There was none this year, and the two injuries that did them in against the Bucks were both fluky (the difference between hurting a hamstring and it being perfectly fine is often a mystery; Irving unluckily landed on Antetokounmpo\u2019s foot) and almost inevitable (you rely on older players, regardless of star power, you\u2019re dancing a dangerous dance).<\/p>\n

You suspect it will be an especially long summer for Irving. He may occasionally state that championships aren\u2019t his end-all, but the truth is he\u2019s now been deprived on two separate occasions the opportunity to swell his ring collection from one to three. He fractured his kneecap in 2015 with Cleveland, and now this. Neither title was guaranteed. But both times his season ended in street clothes.<\/p>\n

The Nets will surely run it back, and do what they can to strengthen a supporting cast that was largely ignored despite one great game from Jeff Green and some fine efforts by Blake Griffin and Bruce Brown. They\u2019ll be next year what they were this year: the most fascinating show in the NBA. Will that be enough to achieve the only goal that matters?<\/p>\n

Maybe. Maybe not. It\u2019s the NBA. Anything can happen.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Nets are reminder nothing is a sure thing” The Nets\u2019 shaky health cost them a berth in the Eastern Conference finals. There\u2019s little question about that. The Bucks showed heart and guts and resilience, they got big games when they needed them from Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo. They held serve all three games at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":279523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/061921Nets96CW.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[109925,70487,64001,60955,70381,106181],"class_list":["post-279522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-20-21","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-james-harden","tag-kevin-durant","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-playoffs-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}