The Brooklyn Nets made one of the biggest blockbuster deals in recent history when they landed James Harden from the Houston Rockets in a four-team deal that included the Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers. That trade put together one of the greatest collections of talents in the history of the league, with Harden joining Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
With those three in the fold, the Nets quickly became a title contender. However, when you add someone of that caliber, there is a lot of adjusting that needs to be done. Someone has to take one for the team and so far, it has been Harden accepting his role as the point guard.
While there is still plenty of work to be done, the Nets have begun to find their groove. While they haven’t consistently had all three in the lineup at the same time, the rest of their roster has begun to find their footing and gain confidence.
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Brooklyn has won five consecutive games, setting records along the way. They made at least 20 3-pointers in three consecutive games, and 81 total in the last four games. This comes on the heels of Brooklyn losing four out of five games, and the Detroit Pistons are responsible for the Nets turning things around.
Brooklyn suffered an embarrassing loss to the Pistons on February 9th, 122-111. According to head coach Steve Nash, that is what the organization needed to get rededicated and turn things around on the court.
“That [Detroit loss] was a low for us, and it did provoke some conversations and kind of a rededication to what we’re trying to do,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “I’m proud of the way they responded since then, obviously we’ve taken care of business.”
Taking care of business would be an understatement. In addition to their onslaught offensively, they have begun to turn things up defensively. While they still have some struggles on that end of the court, they started the winning streak by holding the Indiana Pacers to 94 points and in their most recent game against the Los Angeles Lakers, they gave up only 98 points.
If Brooklyn can consistently perform defensively, they are going to be an extremely difficult team to beat. No one in the league can keep up with them offensively if they are on top of their game given how talented Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving are as a Big 3. If they are getting stops, good luck beating them on that night.
