It’s a topic that Boomer & Gio just had to lampoon on Tuesday morning: the Nets “running out of gas” in Game 4 (and down the stretch in general), after their four biggest stars played a grand total of 84 games combined – 55 for Kevin Durant, 29 for Kyrie Irving.
That’s barely a full season’s worth of games for one player, let alone two. And while yes, KD went from a longer season in 2020-21 to the Olympics and right back into the 2021-22 season, and Irving was fasting for Ramadan and thus it’s understandable if his personal energy level was down, Kyrie at least still averaged 41 minutes and 30 points per game in the five regular-season games in April and went for 34 in 41 minutes in the play-in game, so he did seem to have plenty of steam in the first half of the month.
“One of their superstars played only 29 games this year and their coach has the audacity to say they ran out of gas?” Boomer asked. “This is a colossal failure on so many levels.”
Well, yes, Nash indeed thought his team emptied the tank by the end of Game 4, albeit because of their lack of size.
“Maybe they ran out of gas – we went small, and that takes a toll on these guys to cover bigger guys all night and still fly around and be fast,” Nash said. “That just wore our guys down and they didn’t make enough plays.”
There’s only one other problem with that synopsis: Durant himself contradicted it, both in his one-man show in Game 4 and his postgame comments.
Related
“I felt great this year, I felt the extra minutes and the Olympics and everything were fine,” he said. “Outside of my MCL, I felt fine physically – I didn’t feel fatigued or anything.”
Perhaps, it was as surmised by many, that it was really the lack of team chemistry because of all the flux, combined with facing a simply better team in Boston, being the reason the Nets lost their final four in a row and flame out in a first-round sweep.
Especially as, to a man, the Nets often said they fed off the crowd’s energy at Barclays Center this year, all the way up to Game 4.
“I love when fans pack the house. They brought the energy and were loud, and I feed off that,” Bruce Brown said after Game 4, “so I love when they’re there chanting for us.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch