Nets

No Kevin Durant, no problem? That wasn't the case for Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets in their first game since their star.

"I think I took from it not to be discouraged. Go in the gym, continue to prepare. The Nets guard shot 9 of 24 from the field and went 3 of 11 from beyond the arc.

The Brooklyn Nets fell to the Boston Celtics on Thursday night, as they simply did not have enough without Kevin Durant. Brooklyn actually got major ...

The Nets still have talent, even with Durant sidelined, but every player on the roster will have to step up in his absence. Brooklyn actually got major contributions from their bench in this game, but Kyrie Irving struggled from the floor, and Ben Simmons went scoreless. After the game, Irving revealed how the Nets can makeup Durant's production while he is sidelined with an MCL injury.

Kyrie Irving said Boston's increased pressure in the second half was the main reason for the double-digit loss.

The Brooklyn Nets are officially 0-1 with Kevin Durant on the mend. "One less guy to get open," said Ben Simmons about playing without Durant.

Though the Nets got great production out of Simmons for the first three-quarters, his absence as a scorer was felt tenfold in the fourth. Things got fun at the end of the quarter when Irving and Tatum got into a little bit of a shootout. “A lot of times with Kevin back there they would cover for each other whether Nic was guarding the perimeter, Kevin was still at the rim or vice versa. A crucial point in the quarter came at the very end when Kyrie Irving sat; Ben Simmons created 5 unanswered points in transition off a hit-ahead pass to Yuta Watanabe and a diagonal pass to Joe Harris for three. Even against a shorthanded Boston team, the Nets' biggest structural issues were on full display because of that reduced margin. Boston grew that advantage to 10 points as the Nets’ offense stalled. At just under the 10-minute mark, he turned over the ball against a double-team from the Celtics near midcourt, which immediately turned into two points for Boston. Warren also was a nice spark off the bench with 20 points on 9-of-18 shooting, his second-highest scoring night of the season. I know I need to get to the rim. Boston outscored Brooklyn in the painted area, 54-40, and outrebounded the Nets, 48-31. I think he had some looks that he, I’ve seen him make before so totally trust his ability to make shots for us but make the right decision at the end of the game also.” “Marcus Smart’s a pretty good defender and they’ve got guys at the rim when Ky got to the rim.

Jayson Tatum had 20 points and 11 rebounds, and the Boston Celtics pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat Brooklyn 109-98 in the Nets' first game since ...

The Sabres have lost three in a row and four of six. The understudy is the team's leading rusher going into a wild-card playoff game at Tampa Bay on Monday night. He missed the final five games of the regular season. Kevin Durant has the second-most votes and is on pace to be a captain against James for the third year in a row. Martin Jones stopped 27 shots for his second straight shutout to lead the Kraken to a 3-0 victory over Boston. The NFL decided to put that potential matchup in a neutral city after the Bills’ Week 17 game against Cincinnati was canceled when Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field. James is still on pace to be an All-Star for the 19th time. Charlotte made 10 turnovers in Tuesday’s loss and had a season-worst 22 miscues Thursday, leading to 26 points for the Raptors. Luka Doncic hit tying 3-pointers in the final seconds of regulation and the first overtime before finishing with 35 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists in the Dallas Mavericks’ 119-115 double-overtime victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 37 points and Josh Giddey had 20 to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 133-114 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night. LaMelo Ball scored 32 points before fouling out, and Terry Rozier had 21 as Charlotte lost for the sixth time in seven games. The Thunder won for the fourth time in six games but this was perhaps their signature win of the season.

The Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn said he doesn't want to apply any additional pressure on Kyrie Irving with Kevin Durant sidelined.

We know if we don’t have the maximum effort, we'll get embarrassed. If we know we don’t have maximum effort, we’ll get embarrassed. So we’re going to have to be tight on both ends of the floor, but no more pressure should be on 11. "Is it going to be more of a discipline from the rest of the group to do things – Kevin bailed us out a lot of times. If we know you don’t play harder than the dude that’s next to you, you will get embarrassed. The mood around the Nets has been a confident one with no sliver of confidence being visibly hindered.

Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons (10) looks for an open teammate past Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, ...

That’s playing with force. Durant will be reevaluated by the Nets after two weeks, but an ESPN report suggested that he would miss a month with an isolated MCL sprain. The 40-minute mark? Part of the challenge in playing with “force” is doing it consistently. So the pace that he’s going to create for us, the easy shots that he has to create for us because of the pace, it’s a necessity. The 24-minute mark?

Last time, Brooklyn lost 16 of 21 games after Durant's injury. Before and after the James Harden-Ben Simmons blockbuster trade, which happened during that ...

Brooklyn has to answer these questions in the next few weeks, starting with a home game against Boston on Thursday. Vaughn said that the Nets' priority is to keep Warren healthy for the rest of the season, so he will not be playing 40 minutes. "No excuses, that's the biggest thing for this group," Vaughn said. Can the Simmons-Claxton lineups work without Durant in the picture? He is also a legitimate All-Defense candidate, and the Nets can't simply plug in a another player and duplicate his help defense around the rim, his length and his switchability. Early in the game, Simmons picked up [CJ McCollum](/nba/players/2067685/cj-mccollum/) full court and attacked the basket multiple times. Every time he comes off a pindown, runs a pick-and-roll or catches the ball in the post, he presents a problem for the defense. Vaughn said that Simmons' next step is "to play every possession with force," adding that the pace and easy shots he creates are necessities now. The same guys who have been playing most of the minutes will continue to play most of the minutes, Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn said after practice Wednesday. There will be "no huge changes, philosophically, of how we're going to approach this thing," Vaughn said. "All the things that increase or decrease your margins, we just gotta be better at," Vaughn said. [Kevin Durant](/nba/players/1231866/kevin-durant/) is sidelined with a sprained MCL, just like he was last January, but it's not exactly a same-story, different-year situation.

Here are the takeaways as the Celtics defeated the Nets in a hard-fought win, despite missing both Jaylen Brown and Al Horford on Thursday.

In addition to their own win over the Nets, the Celtics got some help as the Thunder beat the Sixers, and the Heat beat the Bucks (the Cavaliers trailed the Blazers at halftime). Leading by six, Tatum drove to the hoop and tossed up a finger roll. Kornet was facing away from the basket, and he caught the ball awkwardly (and probably above the cylinder). Late in the third, Tatum checked out with the Celtics trailing 80-78. The Nets benefitted from a relatively obvious goal-tending call, which officials missed in the third quarter. It’s hard to quantify exactly how much White brings to the Celtics, but his wide-ranging game was on full display against the Nets. Whenever the Celtics go through a tough stretch, they find a way to shake it off. By the time Tatum returned, the Celtics had an eight-point lead, which ballooned to 12 shortly afterward. The Celtics didn’t miss him too much at the start of the year when they were unsustainably hot from 3-point range, but having him now that they have cooled off is important. And still, the Celtics pulled away in the second half and won by double digits. With Horford sidelined, Robert Williams got the start and played a season-high 29 minutes. The Celtics were without both Jaylen Brown and Al Horford.

We will see how legitimate Brooklyn is in the coming weeks without its best player.

[James Harden](https://www.si.com/nba/player/james-harden) played without Durant, and 1–5 when Irving was the solo star. After a home game Sunday against the surprisingly competitive Thunder, the Nets leave for a five-game trip that includes stops in Phoenix, San Francisco and Philadelphia. [Final score: 109–98](https://www.si.com/nba/nets/news/kyrie-irving-reveals-what-nets-must-do-without-kevin-durant). [Kyrie Irving](https://www.si.com/nba/player/kyrie-irving) scored a bunch (but not enough). Can Irving carry them for two weeks—or three, or four—without Durant to lean on? This isn’t to say that the next four weeks could make or break the season; at 27–14, the Nets have built themselves a nice cushion, regardless of how this Durant-less stretch goes. [Ben Simmons](https://www.si.com/nba/player/ben-simmons) made many beautiful passes (but did not score at all). Durant makes everything else work, makes everyone around him better, and takes all the pressure off his two frequently flaky co-stars. It would be an exaggeration to say the next few weeks will define the Nets’ season. Irving has been spectacular, efficient and most notably, not a distraction since returning from an eight-game suspension triggered by his promotion of an antisemitic film. There was Irving, desperately trying to take over down the stretch, missing 7 of 10 shots in the final quarter. [Durant will be out for a minimum of two weeks](https://www.si.com/nba/2023/01/09/kevin-durant-brooklyn-nets-injury-mcl-sprain), and perhaps much longer, while he recovers from a sprained right knee.

Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons (10) and guard Kyrie Irving guard Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) during the first half of an NBA basketball game ...

“Give them a lot of credit, their defense took the step up and we couldn’t produce on the offensive end of the floor,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. Thursday was the 18th time an NBA player didn’t score a point and had at least 13 assists in a regular season game. Durant had suffered a similar injury last season roughly around the same time as the one that occurred on Sunday, which sent their 2021-22 campaign into a tailspin. In their first game without Kevin Durant, the Nets fell just short to the Celtics in a 109-98 loss at Barclays Center. Payton Pritchard and Malcolm Brogdon combined for a quick eight points and by the 7:14 mark Brooklyn trailed by 12. “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.

Payton Pritchard and Luke Kornet gave an excellent performance at both ends in Thursday's win over the Nets. Chris Forsberg explains why it was so important ...

The absence of Brown hindered the Celtics as Brooklyn loaded up on a tired Tatum and challenged the supporting cast to beat them. [Jaylen Brown](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/jaylen-brown) sat out with a groin injury and [Al Horford](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/al-horford) took his usual rest on the second night of a back-to-back, Boston still found a way to outlast a well-rested but Kevin Durant-less Nets team. The Nets were 3 of 13 shooting when Kornet was the primary defender and a mere 1 of 7 against Pritchard, per NBA tracking. Thanks in part to the bench crew, the Celtics are now 7-0 on the second night of back-to-backs this season. Will games like Thursday change how Brad Stevens operates in advance of next month’s trade deadline and the buyout market? But the Celtics keep finding ways to win. But Kornet has routinely showed that he can hold the fort in the right situations. [Robert Williams III](https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/robert-williams-iii) played a season-high 29:28, Derrick White was a starter-best +12 over 36:35. Given Boston’s lack of tradable assets, it was fair to wonder if the team might be willing to move some of its point guard depth if the right deal materialized. Kornet was excellent early in the season but he had been a bit uneven as Boston’s entire bench slumped into the new year. It was also five guys that had never played a minute together. For those scoring at home, that’s three point guards, four players below the league average in height, and one Kornet.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Brooklyn Nets fans and fans across ...

[Brooklyn Nets](https://www.netsdaily.com) fans and fans across the country. And we also know that “two weeks” can turn into...a long time. Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA.

Evan Sidery joins Ben to help assess Thursday night's matchup between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets.

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NEW YORK (AP) — No Kevin Durant on one side, no Jaylen Brown on the other. When the fourth quarter arrived, Kyrie Irving seemed to take it upon himself to ...

Brogdon and Pritchard each had two baskets early in the fourth, when the Nets missed six of their first seven shots. Durant is the leader among East frontcourt players and Irving is tops among guards. "The first three quarters, felt like I had some good rhythmic shots going," Irving said. Marcus Smart added 16 points and 10 assists for the Celtics. "I think that's kind of what changed the game, is that speed." T.J Warren added 20 and Joe Harris, starting for Durant, had 18.

It was the battle of the first and second teams in the Eastern Conference. A Conference Finals preview? Not quite. And the only reason being if both teams ...

No matter how valuable boards and passes that lead to buckets are, the Nets need Simmons to get on the scoreboard to succeed. On paper, Ben Simmons is supposed to be the answer to the problem that is being without Durant. With Durant and without Irving, the Nets are more likely to win than the contrary. To give Irving his credit, one of the main reasons why the Nets have done well so far this season is his commitment. Though this would have earned them a victory against the lesser teams in the league, it showed just how big of a void Durant leaves against the top-tier teams in the NBA. He played well on the defensive end and created chances for his teammates. The Nets are now 0-1 without Durant for this stretch, and here are some takeaways. So much so that he does not even look at it when driving down on a fast break and passes the ball when he can get a layup. It was the battle of the first and second teams in the Eastern Conference. That is the first puzzle the Nets had to solve. Their roster has no shortage of bucket-getters, but without their primary scorer, finding the solution became a priority. And the only reason being if both teams were to end up fighting for who comes out of the East, they would need to be fully healthy.