CLEVELAND – Brooklyn Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said “keeping things simple” has helped his team extend their winning streak to a National Basketball Association-best nine games after a 125-117 victory over hosts Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night.
“I am a simple person,” Vaughn was quoted by ESPN as saying. “Really try to keep things simple. And so really stressed what was going to be beneficial for our team.
“And whether that was the amount of time we spent in shootarounds, the amount of time we shaved (off) and kept our guys fresh, in order to give an extreme amount of effort when we play... we created a little momentum that way.
“We stripped our playbook down a little bit, we are simple in what we do... have our guys play extremely free of mind. I think there’s something important in that if you’re going to ask your guys to play hard.”
Kyrie Irving scored 15 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter as the Nets survived a shaky finish.
The Nets are on their longest winning streak since a franchise-record 14-game run in 2006 from March 12 to April 6, when they were based in New Jersey and Vaughn played for them.
Brooklyn also matched the Boston Celtics for the NBA’s longest winning streak this season.
Before the game, Vaughn said keeping it “about basketball” has fuelled their winning run.
The Nets have been plagued by distractions such as Irving’s anti-Semitic comments, his refusal to get vaccinated, the sacking of Vaughn’s predecessor Steve Nash in November and Kevin Durant’s trade demands.
But that seems to have changed.
“From the outside looking in,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before the game, “it appears basketball is the main thing.”
Durant had a different take, saying: ‘’To be honest, we’ve always been about basketball.
“I just think the outside world, with media and fans, just makes it seem like we don’t care about the game or we are not focused on the task at hand, but I thought we’ve always been that way (about being focused).
“It’s a fact that you don’t have much to talk about outside of the game, so that’s not adding to the discussion around our team.
“So many voices speak about our locker room who don’t have any idea what’s going on. We’ve always been about the game.”
On the 11th anniversary of his NBA debut with Cleveland, Irving made 11 of 19 shots and hit seven three-pointers as Brooklyn took two 19-point leads before warding off Cleveland’s late comeback that featured several big shots by Darius Garland, who led all scorers with 46 points.
Durant scored 32 points but fouled out for the sixth time in his career when he bumped Garland with 1min 54sec remaining.
Durant also moved past Tim Duncan for 15th place on the all-time scoring list and ended the night on 26,516 career points.
Said Durant: “At some point, you’ve got to be able to celebrate some small win. To be able to pass a legend, it’s something I’ll call my folks about tonight. I know that I’ve got more to do.”
Reserve T.J. Warren added a season-high 23 points as Brooklyn led for the final 42-plus minutes and shot 57.3 per cent from the field.
Garland scored 18 of his points in the fourth quarter, including a jumper in the lane that made it 121-117 with 44 seconds remaining.
After two free throws by Irving, Garland was blocked in the lane by Nic Claxton with 31.3 seconds left and Warren hit two free throws to ice it with 13.8 ticks left.
While Garland made 14 of 20 shots and finished with his fourth 40-point game of his career, Donovan Mitchell was held to 15 points.
Evan Mobley was held to 12 as Cleveland shot 47.6 per cent and lost consecutive games for the first time since their five-game skid in November.
The Nets held a 34-22 lead through the opening quarter and ended the first half with a 21-6 run for a 65-49 lead by half-time.
Cleveland hung around in the third and cut the lead to 91-79 entering the fourth on Kevin Love’s put-back with one second left. Irving hit a trey and had a three-point play in the opening 1:45 of the fourth as Brooklyn opened a 102-83 lead before Cleveland’s comeback attempt began.
REUTERS
