Brooklyn’s “Big Three” only played eight regular-season games together, but combined for a playoff record-tying 104 points in Game 4 against Boston (@JHarden13/Twitter).
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As soon as eight-time All-Star James Harden was acquired by the Brooklyn Nets in January, “title” flashed on everyone’s minds. The addition paired the talented lefty with fellow superstars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, forming one of the most talented Big 3s in NBA history. Only, the trio were able to log just eight regular-season games since then. How much of a problem will this lack of reps pose for the Nets, or are they just too darn talented for it to matter? Chris Milholen of SB Nation’s Nets Daily and the Wingspan Podcast addresses this key question and much more, as Brooklyn leads Boston 3-1 and sees a challenging matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks on the horizon.
1:44-2:16: “Obviously everyone knows the type of offensive presence and the gifted style of offense that the Nets can play with these three players. It’s arguably the most prolific offense the NBA has ever seen. But their defense has also held up pretty well ‘cuz that was one of the major concerns: outside of chemistry, how would their defense look? You just see what they’ve done throughout the Celtics [series] this whole time, especially with this Nets switching defense, they’ve really done a good job of kind of trapping Tatum and restricting the other two options, Fournier and Smart, and same thing with Thompson.”
5:10-5:36: “KD’s always the one that seems to be on the court with another Big 3 member. So James Harden, you saw, okay, he got a couple second-unit minutes last time, conducting that second unit. Sometimes it’s Irving conducting that second unit, giving them that spark off the bench. And then like Nash says, mostly Steve Nash as a coach, he’s very big on going with the flow of the game. Obviously he has a game plan, but when it comes to staggering the Big 3’s minutes, he bases [it] off the flow of the game.” Continue reading