Heading into the playoffs, the biggest question for the championship-hopeful Nets was the lack of familiarity between the team's superstar trio.
Having only played in eight games together all season due to staggered injuries and personal leaves, Brooklyn's big three had a miniscule sample size of shared time on the floor, and head coach Steve Nash acknowledged the challenge it would pose as the Nets prepared to face the toughest teams in the league.
At least through one round of action, those concerns were put to bed.
James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving looked like their typical superstar selves in Brooklyn's five-game disposal of the Celtics, combining to average 85.2 points per game in the series, the most by a trio in any playoff series in NBA history, per the Elias Sports Bureau.
The good news for the Nets? It's likely only going to get better as the trio continues to mesh on the fly.
"I think that they are getting further along," Nash said after game five's series-clinching victory. "Every time out whether it's good or bad performance whether it's cohesive or not I think it leads itself to more growth, more understanding, more cohesion. Some of it is they're just terrific players and able to take over the game in stretches individually. A little bit of both and we're going to need both if we're to continue to get better."
Harden, who returned just before the end of the regular season after nursing a hamstring strain that cost him a month of action, shined the brightest in game five, pouring in 34 points while adding 10 points and 10 assists to become the first Net since Jason Kidd to record a playoff triple-double.
"He's one of the elite point guards that this league has ever seen obviously with his playmaking ability," Harden said. "He's a big guard. He just did so many things at the time in New Jersey that us young guys looked at. So shoutout to J Kidd. I just came here to make an impact on the game, whether it's scoring, whether it's rebounding, whether it's my ability to pass the basketball, whatever the case may be. Every game is a little bit different, but I just take what the defense gives me and I play basketball. I try to play basketball the right way each possession."
Harden averaged 27.8 points per game for the series while shooting 55.6 percent from the field and 47.5 percent from downtown, torching the Celtics defense and sending Boston home to a franchise shakeup that included Brad Stevens shifting from his coaching role and Danny Ainge stepping down from his role.
More importantly, Harden logged five games of playoff experience with Durant and Irving, which is crucial if the Nets are to enjoy the same success against a much tougher Bucks team in the conference semifinals.
"It has to come fairly quickly," Harden said about the trio's chemistry. "For me, I pretty much know, but I think communication goes a long way. As long as we're aggressive and we kind of communicate throughout the course and our coaches do a great job of putting us in positions, that's all that matters. I think if the rest are on the same page and playing well, we can communicate with the rest of the guys where to be on both ends of the ball, I'll take our chances against anybody."
Durant, who missed two months of the season with his own hamstring injury, led the big three by averaging 32.6 points per game in the series while shooting lights-out, averaging 54.6 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-points range. While Irving, playing against his former team, dropped 24.8 points per game while shooting 49.4 percent from the floor. It was an all-around dominant performance from a group that is arguably the best offensive trio ever assembled, and the scariest reality for the teams still alive in the playoff hunt is that they're just getting familiar with each other.
"We don't want to take any of this time for granted, and we know this doesn't happen too often in our culture, in our history where three of the best scorers to ever play the game are on one team, and then you have a collection of guys that have done unbelievable things in this league, either coming off the bench or starting with us," Irving said. "So we just want everyone to feel good. We're a selfless group. We try to make sure it's not just about us three, but we understand that the expectations is on us to perform and to lead our team. It's just inevitable so we welcome that. We just don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves."
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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