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A day that began with New York City’s new health coordinator saying the mandates that have kept unvaccinated Kyrie Irving from playing in Brooklyn will be in place “indefinitely” and continued with Nets coach Steve Nash adding more mist to the murky circumstances concerning Ben Simmons’ back injury finally was headed for the gutter.
But after a gutting first half, the Nets’ lone superstar and best shooter rescued them Friday night.
After a grisly first 24 minutes in which Brooklyn allowed 75 points to an abysmal team, the Nets rallied behind Kevin Durant and Seth Curry and were able to exhale after a 128-123 victory over the Trail Blazers at Barclays Center.
The Nets (37-34), who have won five of six games, are 1 1/2 games ahead of the Hornets and Hawks for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. Their win, however, should have come more comfortably against the tanking Trail Blazers (26-43), who have lost nine of 10.
The Nets trailed by as many as 18 points in the third quarter, played little defense and committed 21 turnovers. But perhaps the best player in the NBA and one of its best marksmen can make up for a lot of mistakes.
Durant might have been sloppy — he finished with eight turnovers — but he also was superb, scoring 38 points. Curry added 27 points, his highest total with the Nets, on 9-for-14 shooting and 7-for-11 from 3-point range, showing how much they have missed him after he sat three games with an ankle injury.
As Friday dragged on, there was frustration — a technical called on Andre Drummond and the Nets’ bench — there was chippiness, and there was a run that brought the Nets back from a huge hole.
The Nets were down 82-64 with 10:40 left in the third quarter when they began mounting their defense (and offense). They were frustrated and jawing at the refs, and they allowed their anger to manifest into points. They ran off a 32-12 spurt to put themselves back in front, capped by a Durant 3-pointer that gave the Nets a lead they did not relinquish.
The Blazers tied the score early in the fourth quarter at 101-all when Durant was resting, but then it was Curry’s turn to take over. He drilled a pair of 3s as part of a 10–0 jolt that gave the Nets the edge. Portland made a late run, but Nic Claxton’s tip-in with 21.4 seconds left was the difference-maker.
The 75 points the Nets surrendered in the first half was ugly, but their 39 points in the third quarter proved more important.
The Nets got big contributions from Goran Dragic (nine points and a season-high 10 assists) and Andre Drummond (17 points, mostly in a big first half). But the game was about Curry and Durant — the superstar whose vaccination status and healthy back allows him to carry the Nets.
Whenever the Nets needed a bucket, Durant appeared. He knocked down 11 of 15 from the field and added another 14 points from the free-throw line.
His third-quarter 3-pointer finally put the Nets over the top at 96-94, and they never looked back.
Forgotten by the end of the game were the missteps and issues.
Earlier Friday, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the new health commissioner, said there is no end in sight to New York City’s private vaccine mandate, which prevents the unvaccinated Irving from playing home games.
Irving’s absence would be easier to stomach if the Nets could rely upon Simmons, but the gem of the return the Nets got in the James Harden trade continues to be sidelined with a back issue. Nash could not provide updates on whether the epidural shot Simmons received Tuesday had helped or any timeline at all, while mentioning an MRI exam that had not been revealed previously.
Until the second-half surge, the bad news just kept on coming.
Durant poured in 22 points in the first half, but they may have been hollow. He opened 7-for-9 in the first 24 minutes and, along with Drummond and Curry, kept the Nets in the game. The trio combined for 49 of the team’s 62 points at the break, which they entered trailing by 13 to one of the worst teams in the game.
Durant, normally sure-handed, made of the Nets’ nine first-half turnovers. In the second quarter, he sloppily tried to swing the ball from a wing to Curry at the top of the arc, but Kris Dunn easily intercepted it and cruised down the court for a dunk that was witnessed from afar by the Nets, who simply watched him go.
The second half, though, featured the Blazers chasing the Nets far more often.
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