The Brooklyn Nets walked the Boston Celtics with a wide score of 130-108 on Tuesday to become 2-0 in their first round playoff series in the NBA Eastern Conference, thanks to another excellent offensive performance from star Kevin Durant.
Durant led the Nets attack with 26 points, eight rebounds and five assists, followed by Joe Harris with 25 points, James Harden with 20 cards and seven serves for a touchdown and Kyrie Irving with 15 points.
The trio Durant, Harden and Irving were decisive again, combining for 61 points of the team’s 130.
In Saturday’s victory in the first game of the playoffs between the two teams, the deadly combination of Durant, Irving and Harden also showed off with a whopping 82 points.
Harris managed to hit with excellent distance aim seven of 10 triples for 21 of his 25 goals, a danger outside the arc, while Durant secured eight of eight free throws.
With his career-high 25-point performance, Harris also tied a franchise-record in the playoffs with seven 3-pointers.
Harris hit three 3-pointers in a row to extend a three-point lead to 25-13 and then stole the ball to slip away for a touchdown from distance. The Nets hit a total of 17 triples (51 points).
Game 3 of this best-of-seven series will be next Friday in Boston, where the Nets will try to build on their first 2-0 lead in a series since they swept the New York Knicks in the first round in 2004.
– Beating –
The Nets, who passed over the Celtics, came to lead by as much as 33 points.
Brooklyn took control from the very first quarter in which they beat the Boston team 40-26. They led extensively 71-47 at halftime with Harris providing plenty of fireworks.
The forward hit six of eight shots from three-point range in the first half, when his 22 points were already a career-high in the playoffs.
He added one more triple in the second half to tie the franchise record in the playoffs.
“Tonight Joe got us going, we made stops, we transitioned, which opened up our offense,” Durant said of Harris. “It was just a good start for us and we kind of sailed from there.”
Nets star center Blake Griffin’s 11 points included two spectacular dunks.
Marcus Smart scored 19 points and Kemba Walker 17 for the Celtics. The team’s leading scorer, Jayson Tatum, was very controlled, scoring just nine goals before leaving after just 21 minutes with a right eye injury. (AFP) (GG)