The Nets played a game without Kevin Durant on Thursday—the first of what will be many in the weeks to come—and it went about the way you’d expect.
Kyrie Irving scored a bunch (but not enough). Ben Simmons made many beautiful passes (but did not score at all). And the Nets lost at home to the Celtics, a team that has routinely tortured and taunted them for the last two seasons. Final score: 109–98.
It was just Brooklyn’s third loss in seven weeks, a rare road bump amid a renaissance season in which the Nets have magically transformed from dysfunctional to dominant. But it looked more like a warning sign, a reminder of past failures and still-lingering frailties.
