Road To Championship For Brooklyn Nets
Nets should look to play on the road in playoffs if Kyrie can’t play in Brooklyn.
Kyrie Irving looked sharper than a needle used to deliver the vaccine in his return to action Wednesday night for the Brooklyn Nets. The unvaccinated Irving scored 22-points on 9-of-17 shooting in 31-minutes in Brooklyn’s 129-121 win over the Pacers. In the process Irving reminded us what the Nets have been missing all season: a lightening-quick point guard with an ability to score and create at will. But Nets fans will have to travel with the team if they hope to see Kyrie and the big three play in-person this season.
New York City’s vaccine mandate for indoor venues doesn’t seem like it’s going away anytime soon. The City’s new Mayor, Eric Adams has already said he won’t repeal the mandate and COVID cases are going in the wrong direction—fast. So Irving can play road games for the Nets this season. If that remains through for the rest of the year, then the key to the Nets winning a championship may mean not winning too much during the regular season.
Right now the Nets sit in second place, behind the Bulls, in the Eastern Conference. If the team is committed to winning a championship, they should finish no higher than fourth in the regular season if they’re going to have their best chance to win it all. That’s because it’s far more important that Kyrie plays than it is that the Nets play at home.
It’s a small sample size, but after the win in Indiana the Nets are now 12-3 when Irving, Kevin Durant, and James Harden all play together. In last year’s matchup with the Celtics, the Big 3 tied a playoff record with a combined 104 points — the most ever by three teammates.
Playing at home hasn’t exactly been an advantage for the Nets. In fact, Brooklyn is just 10-9 at Barclays Center this season. Even without Irving the road hasn’t been a problem for Brooklyn. After last night’s game, the Nets are a league best 14-3 away from Barclays Center. And let’s not forget that the Nets had home-court advantage when they lost Game 7 to the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks last season. Without Irving and with a hobbled Harden, Durant’s effort to carry the team came up an oversized shoe short of the conference finals.
Since lower seeded teams play one more game on the road if a playoff series goes the distance, that means it would actually benefit the Nets to have a worse record than their opponent come playoff time. I don’t think it will matter in the first round, because Brooklyn should be good enough to beat any potential first round matchup with Durant leading the way. But once the stiff competition begins in the second round, the Nets will want Irving there as much as possible. Brooklyn should look to settle in a sweet spot with the fourth seed to maximize their chances in the playoffs.
We don’t know if New York City will change the vaccine rules between now and the playoffs. We don’t know if Irving will get vaccinated between now and then either. But Brooklyn can’t risk not having Irving available for a deciding Game 7 with a championship on the line.