The Brooklyn Nets continue to depend heavily on Kevin Durant to put up huge numbers to finish out the season while Kyrie Irving remains unavailable to play games at the Barclays Center because of the vaccine mandate and Ben Simmons still recovers from a bad back,
It didn’t take KD long to get his offense rolling for yet another scoring explosion. He scored seemingly from everywhere on the court. He started the game with a jumper over Josh Hart in a one-on-one matchup.
Wasting no time 💰 pic.twitter.com/rImYYldIoa
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) March 18, 2022
Then he showed how dangerous a threat he is playing off the ball and letting things develop within the offense.
Dangerous on and off the ball pic.twitter.com/ekbtAYTrjW
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) March 18, 2022
But despite 13 early points from Durant, the Blazers ran off to a first-half lead by knocking down nine of their first 12 shots and used a 42-point second quarter to grab a 75-62 at the break. But finally, after Portland extended the lead to 82-64 in the third quarter, thanks to KD and some timely shots from Seth Curry, Brooklyn outscored the Blazers 39-26 to even it at 101, heading to the final quarter.
Even with Durant’s 38 points with six rebounds and six assists, he praised Curry for sparking a 10-0 spurt with two triples to give Brooklyn a 111-101 lead while he was on the bench.
back in front 👀 pic.twitter.com/mrGDAxTL4T
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) March 19, 2022
“We needed that, and good to see him back out there,” Durant said via ESPN. “He missed a few games with that ankle, but I’m glad he’s getting better, and he was able to come out here and play, and we needed all those points tonight.”
The Nets will need more of the same Monday night as they take on the Utah Jazz at home.
