It’s been a long season for the Nets. Kyrie Irving’s awkward banishment and partial return; a knee injury that sidelined Kevin Durant for more than 20 games; Joe Harris’s second ankle surgery; and the fateful decision to trade James Harden to a conference rival for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond. All are separate incidents that forced this team to take different shapes over the past five months.
It’s been chaotic, with only one of their franchise-record 40 starting lineups (Durant, Harden, Bruce Brown, Blake Griffin and Harris) having appeared in at least 10 games. Brooklyn is currently in eighth place, a precarious spot that requires victory in the play-in tournament before any run to the Finals can occur.
The Nets still inspire optimism, though. And one of the most obvious reasons for it might also be the most important: Brooklyn is a lot better on the road than any team fighting for a playoff spot should be, a fact born from Irving’s decision not to get vaccinated. (The 30-year-old is currently averaging 27.7 points on near 50/40/90 shooting splits in 20 games, all on the road.)
It’s a consequential, oceanic disparity. The Nets are 16–19 at Barclays Center this season (the same number of wins as the Pelicans, Pacers and Kings) with a 108.8 offensive rating (only the Knicks, Pistons, Thunder and Magic are less efficient in their own building). Even after factoring in Irving’s absence and Durant’s injury, this is … wild. (Harden, who for all his faults should still be able to prop an offense up to league average levels, appeared in 21 of those home games.)
When they hit the road, though, the Nets are, at 22–15, a different team. Or, at the very least, a different offense. Only the Suns, Sixers, Raptors and Grizzlies have won more away games this season and—wait for it—zero teams have scored the ball more efficiently, overall, in the half-court and in transition. In fact, despite all its season-long issues (some self-inflicted, others beyond anyone’s control), Brooklyn’s road offense is historically great. Only two teams since 1984 can boast a higher offensive rating, and both did so during last year’s strange, mostly fan-free competition: the Blazers and … the Nets.
New York City’s private-sector mandate remains an important variable for this team’s title run (a sentence that never stops being ridiculous). But even if Mayor Eric Adams opts not to lift it this spring, the Nets have reason to feel bullish about what they’ve become, thanks to how comically elementary their stars make NBA offense look when both are available to play.
So long as Durant is healthy, no opponent should want to face this team in a seven-game series. All season, but particularly of late, it’s the world’s most potent player who has illuminated the Nets’ variance. It’s not that KD is bad at Barclays Center and very good on the road, of course. It’s that he’s very good at Barclays Center and superhuman on the road, where he’s shooting 54.2% from the floor, 40% behind the arc and 90.6% at the free-throw line. His net rating on the road is a career-high 13.2, while the Nets’ net rating is -0.5 points per 100 possessions when Durant is on the floor at home (the lowest figure since his second season).
Thanks to spacing issues they endured earlier this season, Durant has drawn even more attention all year than he’s used to (which is definitely saying something). But since he’s returned from that knee injury to a Harden-less roster, opponents have been particularly locked in to slow him down. During a home loss against the Mavericks last week—a game Curry also missed—Durant was relentlessly double teamed by one of the best defenses in the NBA.
Last Friday, the Blazers’ strategy was essentially to get as physical with Durant as they could. At one point, he came off a pindown, ran straight into Kris Dunn’s forearm shiver and yelled “That’s not basketball!” at a referee.
These issues don’t really exist when Irving is by Durant’s side. Brooklyn’s offensive rating when both Nets stars share the floor is a whopping 126.3. Granted, it has been only 188 minutes and features some of the most unstoppable shotmaking in NBA history by Irving, but Durant’s own true shooting percentage in those stints is 69%. (Home and road shooting splits are hard to ignore elsewhere on the roster, too. Patty Mills, for example, is shooting 46.6% from three when away and 34.9% at home.)
How much all this will actually matter remains unclear. The Nets, who have 10 games remaining, don’t know if/when Simmons will take the court this season, and unless Irving gets vaccinated (which isn’t happening) or the NYC mandate comes to an end sometime over the next few weeks, he’ll only suit up for three more regular season games. No one can say for sure whether Adams will lift the mandate. (Irving also can’t travel to Toronto, which will be a problem if Brooklyn faces the Raptors in a play-in game.)
But in the meantime, even with a defense that ranks 28th in 2022 (and hasn’t clicked regardless of where they play), the Nets’ road offense makes them dangerous and unpredictable—particularly for opposing coaches who don’t have much film worth studying that can help them prepare. If any team can make a playoff run without the traditional advantage of competing in front of its cheering fan base more times than its opponents’, it’s the Nets.
