Durant and Kyrie Steal the Show in NBA’s First Game

Here’s a little riddle: What is 82 inches tall and runs better after sitting for 560 days?

The answer? Kevin Durant.

The league’s best pure scorer – Kevin Durant – went down with a nasty torn Achilles injury during a 2019 NBA Finals game in Toronto while playing for the Warriors. The date of the injury was June 10, 2019.

That offseason, Durant left Golden State and signed with the Brooklyn Nets – teaming up with superstar point guard Kyrie Irving who made the move from Boston. KD did not play a single minute of the shortened, bubbly mess of a season that was 2019-20. Durant was rehabbing his torn heel tendon with his sights set on a 2020-21 return.

December 22, 2020 – 560 days after the injury. The Nets are scheduled to play the NBA season opener against the depleted Golden State Warriors – Durant’s old team. Coincidence that the schedule makers did this? I think not.

You can imagine the storylines. Brooklyn has not been good since … like 2002, back when they were the “New Jersey” Nets. With a healthy KD and a productive Irving – the Nets can hang with anyone.

Many believe this to be the year a championship can be won in Brooklyn. The borough has not seen a trophy since the Dodgers won the World Series in 1955!

Kevin Durant is the implicit leader of this team. It is his ring to win (or lose), and December 22nd is the first step on the journey. This is a lot to ask of someone who hasn’t stepped on an NBA court in over 18 months.

How did KD respond? Um … pretty well. Let’s talk about it.

Kevin Durant’s Night vs Warriors

Durant began the 2020-21 season on a strong note – dropping 22 points on 7 of 16 shooting while making all 7 of his free throw attempts.

KD put his long body to use on the defensive side of the ball, as well, collecting 3 steals and 1 block.

Durant collected 3 assists and turned the ball over just once – a decent assist to TO ratio.

Ok ok, enough of the boring numbers. That doesn’t prove Durant is back in peak form. After all – it’s the depleted Warriors we’re talking about here. Pretty sure my red-head college ceramics teacher could go out and drop 22 on Golden State this year.

Show me something that impresses me! Well, how about this little display from KD about 5 minutes into his first contest in over a year and a half.

Boom! Durant with the ferocious flush – giving would-be shot blocker Kelly Oubre Jr. a one-way ticket straight to the floor.

Notice how Oubre begins his closeout heading straight toward Durant and then veers out of the way at the last second once he realizes that Durant is going to posterize him.

This tells me Durant is back to full strength, is as quick as ever, and can still get up like it’s 2018.

That dunk was the best play of the night for Durant because it proves he is back in peak form. He made lots of jump shots Tuesday, but that is expected because jumpers are the one aspect of his game he could work on while sidelined with his Achilles.

When players age or their bodies deteriorate, their athleticism (quickness, explosiveness, and bounce) is the first thing to go. Their jump shot remains.

Had Durant just sat outside the arc Tuesday and launched some Js, we would not have been able to assess his health and the status of his game. It was good for the Nets, for fans, and for Durant himself to execute such an athletic play so early in the contest. This dunk over Oubre was KD’s announcement to the league that he is back, baby!

I know I just finished saying that jump shots are not a good litmus test for health, but it still takes insane talent to pull off some of the shots that Durant makes appear easy.

My favorite jumper of the night was this “Vintage KD” pull up after a sick long-wingspan cross over Eric Paschall.

So pretty. It is too easy to overreact after one game, but Durant looks like he’s back. This Nets roster with a mediocre KD is nothing more than a middle-tier playoff team in the East. This Nets roster with KD at 100% (like he appeared Tuesday) can run the East and challenge the Bucks for the right to square off with LeBron in June … er, July this year I guess.

Kyrie Irving’s Night vs Warriors

At just 28 years old, Kyrie is younger than KD and will likely be called upon to be a bigger workhorse and bear more minutes than KD.

Kyrie’s calling card is his lightning-quick footspeed combined with superhuman handles. Irving’s ability to change directions on a dime and vary his speed while advancing the ball to the hoop makes it terribly difficult to stay in front of him.

I love this classic-Kyrie play from the Nets’ preseason contest versus the Celtics.

Notice how Kyrie follows the slow pump fake and the exaggerated first step with a sudden full-speed burst to the rack – only to pull up and leave the much-taller defender Jaylen Brown in no position to contest the shot. Irving does stuff like this all the time.

Here’s another play – this time from Tuesday’s game. This play showcases yet another element of Kyrie’s game that makes him impossible to defend – his knack for finishing from any body position.

This drive is beautiful and best described as “crafty”. Notice how Irving slows down to use the pick from DeAndre Jordan, accelerates into the paint, and then slows down again to finish the bucket.

Here’s what I mean when I say he can finish from any body position. Kyrie’s momentum is taking him toward the bottom left corner of the screen here, but he is able to hang in the air and bring the ball back to the right side of his body to flip the ball up and get a good bounce off the rim because of the feathery soft touch made possible by his impeccable in-air body control.

The main defender on Kyrie in this play was the aforementioned Kelly Oubre Jr. Oubre is 6’7 and a good shot blocker (he had 2 blocks in this game). Irving positioned his body in such a way that Oubre couldn’t even jump to contest the shot for fear of fouling.

What if defenders just sag off of Kyrie? Force him to shoot.

Well, the Warriors tried that … and got torched. Irving launched 7 3-pointers in Tuesday’s contest – making 4 of them. That’s a 57% rate from deep. In comparison, Steph Curry was 2 of 10 from deep Tuesday (this shot was pretty, though).

No one has ever questioned Irving’s ability. The knock on Kyrie has always been his dedication to getting his teammates involved and putting winning before individual accolades.

On past teams, Irving has typically been the first option on offense. Even when playing alongside LeBron in Cleveland, Irving was often putting up more shots per game than the King (such as in 2016-17 when Irving averaged nearly 20 shots per game to LeBron’s 18).

This is the exact same criticism aimed at Russell Westbrook. Point guards with a score-first mentality will inevitably catch shade from the media when their team begins to struggle.

One of the biggest fears right now in Brooklyn is that Kyrie will fall too much in love with his own shots and neglect to get the rest of his teammates involved – which would be a disaster as GM Sean Marks has put together an extremely deep and balanced roster.

This next play from right before halftime should be extremely encouraging for Nets fans. Granted, I am overreacting here based on one good play from the first game of the season against a weak opponent, but I’m in the media – I’m allowed to overreact. In fact, it’s encouraged!

Um … ok … what was so great about that?

Let me tell you. First of all, check out the score. Nets are up 16 – they have a pretty good handle on this game. It is clear the Warriors can’t hang. There are no fans in the stands. It would be very easy for the players (especially the stars) to let up in their effort just a bit by this point in the game.

Irving throws a juicy bounce pass to Michigan-man Caris LeVert on the break – which, first of all, is a good thing to see out of your point guard.

Irving then follows the pass and fights to collect the rebound once LeVert gets blocked at the rim! It would have been very easy to let the much bigger Andrew Wiggins (#22 for GS) collect that rebound and simply jog back on defense – after all, Kyrie did his job right? He got the ball to the open man.

Wiggins was much closer to this ball than Kyrie was after the block. It was Wiggings – not Kyrie – who was caught being complacent. Kyrie sprints in, grabs the ball, and then bears the brunt of a frustration foul from Wiggins who immediately understood he got outhustled while his team was already down double digits – not a good look.

If Durant continues to play at peak form and Kyrie buys in with great effort at all times like he did Tuesday night – this Nets team will be an incredibly difficult out come spring.