Nba, Brooklyn Nets-New York Knicks 110-98

With an excellent second half the Nets (42-38) avoid a very expensive slip in the derby with the Knicks (35-45) and find the success, 110-98 the score, which keeps them in the running for seventh place. By beating Cleveland on Friday and Indiana on Sunday, Brooklyn would face the “Play-in” in the best possible situation. At Madison Square Garden, against the reworked Knicks lacking Randle, Rose and Robinson, Steve Nash’s team dozed for most of the match only to change gears midway through the second half. Kevin Durant thinks about making the difference for the umpteenth time and in the end he puts a triple double on the scoresheet: 32 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. For the first time the Irving-Durant duo takes the field at Garden with the Nets jersey but the approach to a challenge that is worth a lot for Brooklyn is absolutely wrong. The visiting team, in fact, plays with an irritating sufficiency in defense and in attack goes to alternating current. So Burks and Barrett get married and the Knicks place the acceleration that changes the direction of the match between the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second, producing a 19-0 run that enhances Garden. Irving and his companions find no answers and thus arrive late at the interval 67-50.

What a recovery

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The Knicks touch +21 in the third fraction but things change radically when Nash decides to lower the quintet. The defensive aggression of the visiting team begins to put the Knicks in difficulty, KD, who becomes practically the only long of the team in a quintet with Brown and three guards, then picks up the pace in attack and for New York things get complicated. Brooklyn takes the hosts back with a 15-2 break early in the fourth period with Mills becoming lethal from long range. Inertia passes into the hands of the visiting team that dominates the last minutes of the match and closes the match with the 16-2 run that takes away all hope from Tom Thibodeau’s team. The Nets then manage to resume by the hair a challenge started in the worst possible way, for the Knicks, however, comes yet another defeat against Durant. The New York team, which seemed to be the favorite in the race for free agent KD when in 2019 he decided to sign instead with his Brooklyn cousins, in fact, has not managed to defeat Kevin Durant for nine years. “After an absolutely unsatisfactory first half – comments Steve Nash at the end of the match at Garden – in the second half we played with energy and dedication. We risked a lot due to a bad approach but in the second half we only conceded 31 points to the Knicks, I’m proud of the team’s reaction ”.

New York: Burks 24 (3/8, 4/6, 6/8 tl), Barrett 23, Toppin 19. Rimbalzi: Sims 13. Assist: Barrett 7.

Brooklyn: Durant 32 (9/12, 2/10, 8/9 tl), Irving 24, Curry, Mills 15. Rimbalzi: Durant 10. Assist: Durant 11.