Without Durant Nets fall to Boston 

Kyrie and Nets Miss Durant

Photo: Special to the NY Beacon

By Derrel Jazz Johnson

Thursday’s nationally broadcast game on TNT between the Boston Celtics
and the Brooklyn Nets was highly anticipated. Despite the news that
Kevin Durant was diagnosed with an isolated MCL sprain of the right
knee, and would be reevaluated after two weeks, fans were excited to
see what the team would do without the league’s best. Also, Boston was
without all-star Jaylen Brown as well, so it seemed like an even
matchup. And it was through three quarters.

Brooklyn led by as many as nine in the second quarter and trailed by
only two headed into the fourth quarter. The tenacious defense of
Boston limited Brooklyn to 16 fourth-quarter points on their way to a
109-98 win at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

“Give them credit,” said Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn.
“Their defense took a step up and we couldn’t produce on the offensive
end of the floor.”

Irving also discussed the fourth quarter “They won the race to get the

 fourth quarter started aggressive,” he said. “A few times, calls could 

have gone either way when the results ended up the way they are, and 

I feel like we definitely could have taken some better shots in the fourth 

quarter, got some defensive stops, but it didn’t happen for us tonight. 

And when you give up any opportunities for them to capitalize, they’re a 

great team, they’re gonna do so.”

Ben Simmons, who had 13 assists and 9 rebounds in 26 minutes without
scoring, talked about what changes without Durant on the court.

“One less guy to get open,” he simply said. “When you’re without
Kevin, who can score at will, it takes a lot of pressure off of
everybody. Us collectively, we have to understand that and play a
certain way with pace movement and play team basketball.”