GT: Nets @ Mavericks - Thursday, 05/06/21 | 7:30pm EST | TNT & YES

[MrDollarBills]

It's hilarious how this board turns on KD when he finally has a stretch where he's not playing the most efficient perimeter game literally ever.

Not a player in the league hasn't had a couple of off games. Be glad Durant can even be on the court to have an off night, given what he's recovering from.

He's not closed the last two games up to his standards, but stop getting in your emotions and saying things like he should come off the bench.

Cool so we can’t criticize Kevin Durant at all? So many homers just lurking and waiting until someone calls KD out so they can come in and start defending him.

Dude has been trash. More so, his decision-making has been trash. With constant ball hogging and tunnel vision.

GTR going nuts on Kyrie when he’s the only one that could generate any offense tonight, and was constantly looking to set up teammates. Durant is the one icing players out with stupid ISOs when he clearly doesn’t have it.

Now you tell me the difference between criticizing Durant and claiming he should stay a bench player.

Acting like KD is the first great player in history to have a bad game or go cold shooting the ball is just a ridiculous critique.

The only tunnel vision I've identified is coming from you. Durant has passed the ball. The shooters have simply missed. Joe Harris is playing passive. Shamet literally hasn't hit a shot.

What, do you want Durant to just stay passive too? With his talent? Where else is the scoring going to come from, if everyone else is cold?

This loss and the losing streak is not just because "KD iso" happened.

Got to agree with this. Durant deserves to be criticized. He went 1-10 in the 2nd half. But this is an outlier. He will bounce back.

[therealbig3]

We saved our worst basketball of the season for the home stretch.

[YamaChan]

We were playing roughly .500 ball when it was just Kyrie and no KD.

Ever since KD came back we have been straight trash. He has been beyond awful. Ruined our offense.

That's total nonsense and another over reactionary cold take.

The moment KD stepped back on the court the offense jumped to a new level.

KD wasn't even on the court during the huge blowout loss to the Blazers. And the Bucks games would've been equally bad blowouts if KD wasn't on the court for those either.

People in here are just letting their emotions dominate their logic.

And I'll be here to say I told you so when KD has another historic Finals and wins his third Finals MVP.

[Born_Ready]

Picked the wrong time to play so poorly.

[Hello Brooklyn]

Kyrie was 17-31 tonight. Rest of the starters were 14-45.

Shamet/Harris routinely bricking wide open 3s. Durant missing iso shots. Blake missing a ton of easy shots at the rim.

This team had a complete stinker when we can't afford to lose anymore.

[MrDollarBills]

It's gunna be mad hard winning any type of playoff series with this puturid, redundant defense. Sh !t is played out and somebody in that locker room need to get slapped for this pathetic display of NBA basketball.

This ain't remotely close to championship caliber basketball. This some horse manure. I ain't mad tho bc I kept realistic expectations from the jump. Hopefully James' return is the much needed spark.

I'm scared tbh. The team chooses now to just fall off a cliff when the playoffs are less than 5 games away. We are not ready, Nash doesn't seem ready. Joe Harris and Jeff Green have just been awful. Shamet has been awful.

I'm hoping that Harden can give this team the shot in the arm that we need.

[therealbig3]

It’s Durant’s ball hogging that I had an issue with. I know he can hit those shots, but if you’re going to ignore teammates to take those shots, and you’re missing those shots...you want me to say “it’s ok KD, you’ll get em next time!”? Nah man, I’m gonna call you out for playing a terrible basketball game.

Also, Harris’s defense is a bigger problem than his offense imo. Gives up a ton of layups, gets broken down off the dribble like it’s his job, and commits a ton of dumb fouls. On top of that, he’s constantly out of position and it’s like always his man beating him to the loose balls or for offensive rebounds.

He’s actually a guy that might warrant playing less and maybe coming off the bench. Brown is playing well lately, I’d play him more. I also know that Claxton had some issues, but he was overall another solid positive tonight. Both of them should play more.

[Hello Brooklyn]

It's gunna be mad hard winning any type of playoff series with this puturid, redundant defense. Sh !t is played out and somebody in that locker room need to get slapped for this pathetic display of NBA basketball.

This ain't remotely close to championship caliber basketball. This some horse manure. I ain't mad tho bc I kept realistic expectations from the jump. Hopefully James' return is the much needed spark.

I don't know man. I thought the defense was pretty good tonight to be honest.

We shut off Luka and kept them at 45% shooting.

Offense was just God awful in the second half. Like historically bad.

Thats the **** part. Everytime we improve in one area we fall apart in another one.

We can never put it together.

[Stone]

We lost another winnable game. Rapidly losing faith in Nash.

[GTR11]

I'll take that top 3 seed and hope Saltics get 6. They role players are trash and their best players iso happy. Our star power much better along with role players. Nets in 5 maybe 6.

Miami will be tough. Can see it goes to 7 if Harden ain't 100%. We can lose if Harden is hurt.

Bucks and 6's will take care vs us in 5 maybe 6 with no Harden. It's just harsh reality. It's ok to admit facts rather look silly later.

[Pelly24]

KD with a rough 1-10 from the field second half. Joe Harris 3/9. Shamet 0/5. Tyler Johnson played no minutes. Claxton didn't play enough.

The nets offense just looks pretty rough at the end of these games man and I don't quite understand it. They're great ISO players, but it seems like that's all that gets done. It didn't even seem like they tried to run anything. KD was due for an awful game, but in general, I never get a great game sense from him a lot of these times. It just looks like no one even tried to run anything. I kind of put it on Nash.

[CalamityX12]

Harris had a bad playoffs stint vs Philly.

I hope that's not coming around again

[YamaChan]

It’s Durant’s ball hogging that I had an issue with. I know he can hit those shots, but if you’re going to ignore teammates to take those shots, and you’re missing those shots...you want me to say “it’s ok KD, you’ll get em next time!”? Nah man, I’m gonna call you out for playing a terrible basketball game.

Also, Harris’s defense is a bigger problem than his offense imo. Gives up a ton of layups, gets broken down off the dribble like it’s his job, and commits a ton of dumb fouls. On top of that, he’s constantly out of position and it’s like always his man beating him to the loose balls or for offensive rebounds.

He’s actually a guy that might warrant playing less and maybe coming off the bench. Brown is playing well lately, I’d play him more. I also know that Claxton had some issues, but he was overall another solid positive tonight. Both of them should play more.

You're right.

Durant should've deferred to Joe Harris, Shamet, Brown and Claxton instead. They were clearly sizzling this game.

You see, I don't like it when people complain about a problem without offering a solution.

What else did you want KD to do? He CLEARLY deferred to Kyrie Irving and let him cook as much as he could. He tried to get other involved, but they weren't hitting any of their shots.

As the best scorer ever, KD absolutely needs to continue shooting, if his teammates not named Kyrie don't have it going.

Very few of his shots were rushed, bad or to the detriment of wide open teammates.

Please come to me with facts and not narratives.

"The shot wasn't falling for KD and he went cold at the worst possible time" is actual fact.

Everything else being said in here is over reactionary emotional takes.

[MrDollarBills]

It’s Durant’s ball hogging that I had an issue with. I know he can hit those shots, but if you’re going to ignore teammates to take those shots, and you’re missing those shots...you want me to say “it’s ok KD, you’ll get em next time!”? Nah man, I’m gonna call you out for playing a terrible basketball game.

Also, Harris’s defense is a bigger problem than his offense imo. Gives up a ton of layups, gets broken down off the dribble like it’s his job, and commits a ton of dumb fouls. On top of that, he’s constantly out of position and it’s like always his man beating him to the loose balls or for offensive rebounds.

He’s actually a guy that might warrant playing less and maybe coming off the bench. Brown is playing well lately, I’d play him more. I also know that Claxton had some issues, but he was overall another solid positive tonight. Both of them should play more.

I hoped that Claxton and Brown would start.

Nash goes with Shamet and Griffin.

I have honestly lost faith in Nash tbh. I tried to give him a break but he has done this team no favors. We need to mix in some defense and rebounding, these small ball line ups aren't working

[GTR11]

It’s Durant’s ball hogging that I had an issue with. I know he can hit those shots, but if you’re going to ignore teammates to take those shots, and you’re missing those shots...you want me to say “it’s ok KD, you’ll get em next time!”? Nah man, I’m gonna call you out for playing a terrible basketball game.

Also, Harris’s defense is a bigger problem than his offense imo. Gives up a ton of layups, gets broken down off the dribble like it’s his job, and commits a ton of dumb fouls. On top of that, he’s constantly out of position and it’s like always his man beating him to the loose balls or for offensive rebounds.

He’s actually a guy that might warrant playing less and maybe coming off the bench. Brown is playing well lately, I’d play him more. I also know that Claxton had some issues, but he was overall another solid positive tonight. Both of them should play more.

Joe, Nic and Jeff will become force if used properly. They are role players that can be very good or very bad depending on situation they've been put on.

[therealbig3]

It's gunna be mad hard winning any type of playoff series with this puturid, redundant defense. Sh !t is played out and somebody in that locker room need to get slapped for this pathetic display of NBA basketball.

This ain't remotely close to championship caliber basketball. This some horse manure. I ain't mad tho bc I kept realistic expectations from the jump. Hopefully James' return is the much needed spark.

I don't know man. I thought the defense was pretty good tonight to be honest.

We shut off Luka and kept them at 45% shooting.

Offense was just God awful in the second half. Like historically bad.

Thats the **** part. Everytime we improve in one area we fall apart in another one.

We can never put it together.

I agree with this. We actually played well defensively in the 2nd half. And held them to 113 points. I think most people would consider holding the Mavs offense to less than 115 points a win. We just had one guy that showed up in the 2nd half offensively though.

Btw, we’re in danger of NOT having a 50 win season percentage wise lmao. We were a lock earlier, but now are in free fall.

44 wins this year gets us there. I don’t think it’s a guarantee we get it.

[MGrand15]

I really don't want to hear a word about KD or the coaching staff. We've been a great TEAM all year because of our roleplayers. They've been non-existent the past few games. They need to bounce back quickly.

This team was regularly putting up 120 in it's sleep. I can live with below average defense - that's a personnel thing. Our offense has been bailed out recently by superstar performances instead of just flowing.

[Pelly24]

I just wonder about KD and Kyrie at the end of games (together) this year. They've just been pretty underwhelming and I don't quite get why. Are they just that bad at playmaking? I think there's some systemic issues at work, some lack of comfort, something.

[Hello Brooklyn]

KD with a rough 1-10 from the field second half. Joe Harris 3/9. Shamet 0/5. Tyler Johnson played no minutes. Claxton didn't play enough.

The nets offense just looks pretty rough at the end of these games man and I don't quite understand it. They're great ISO players, but it seems like that's all that gets done. It didn't even seem like they tried to run anything. KD was due for an awful game, but in general, I never get a great game sense from him a lot of these times. It just looks like no one even tried to run anything. I kind of put it on Nash.

I have no problem with iso offense for KD at the end of games.

That's what you want when you have a player of his caliber. But if hes missing everything then its not the offensive scheme's fault.

It doesn't help when Harris/Shamet are ice cold and the Mavs wouldn't even bother guarding them.

[Shark]

Don't know if I feel like watching a replay of this one, but feels like its more or less the same as the two Bucks losses. These guys are playing like they've never played together before. And I get that with all the injuries and trades its hard to say that it shouldn't be that way, but these past few games have been really rough. We're way better than what we've been playing like lately.