NEW YORK — Kevin Durant was a man on a mission.
Durant scored a season-high 45 points — including 19 in the third quarter — to lead the Nets to a 109-102 win over the Orlando Magic Monday night at Barclays Center.
Durant, whose previous season high was 37 points in games against Dallas and Memphis, said in his on-court postgame interview that he knew when he woke up this morning that he was going to have a big game.
“I just had to be creative and make shots,” Durant said.
The Nets (11-11) now have a .500 record for the first time since the second game of the season, and getting there was definitely on Durant’s mind.
“We’ve been through a lot so far,” Durant said. “Getting to .500 was a goal for us late in the last couple of weeks. We’ve been right on the cusp.”
Durant shot 19-for-24 overall and in the third quarter was 8-for-9, including 2-for-2 from three-point range.
“He just keeps doing it,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. “What he did to lead us to a win is huge. I think it shows what he feels about the game. He approaches it like we have to win this game.”
Kyrie Irving added 20 points for the Nets, Nic Claxton had 17 and Joe Harris, who had been struggling, came off the bench to score 17. The one piece of bad news was that Ben Simmons left the game with about nine minutes left in the second quarter, complaining of knee soreness. Vaughn said Simmons is day-to-day and will get treatment on Tuesday.
Bol Bol and rookie Paolo Banchero each scored 24 points for Orlando (5-16).
On paper, the Nets should have had no trouble dominating the Magic. Orlando entered the game having lost four straight and six of its last seven. What’s more, the worst of those losses had come just a day earlier. On Sunday, the Magic allowed the 76ers to shoot 64.9% from the floor — matching the highest percentage ever allowed by the franchise — as it dropped a 133-103 decision.
The Nets were also playing in the second game of a back-to-back as they defeated Portland, 111-97, Sunday night at Barclays Center.
Both teams seemed sluggish in the first half as they missed multiple open shots. Neither team led by more than 10 points and there were eight lead changes
The win means the Nets are 2-0 on a key nine-game stretch, during which some important decisions likely will be made about the team.
Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like a done deal that the Nets were going to blow up the team before the trade deadline.
Irving was suspended, Simmons was struggling, Steve Nash had been shown the door, the defense was nonexistent and the Nets’ outside shooters were unproductive.
Durant was still great, which had the rest of the league salivating as they anticipated that he would renew his trade demands if things continued to go downhill.
However, since Vaughn took over, the Nets have managed to regain some of their footing. Under Vaughn, the team has gone 9-6 and is even winning some games with their defense.
The Nets were built to win championships, not be a .500 team. They have to decide whether this roster still can be a contender or whether it is time to rebuild. That’s why the next seven games are so important. Approximately a third of NBA players are ineligible to be traded before Dec. 15. That’s the first day players who signed new contracts during the offseason are eligible to be traded.
That means the Nets’ front office has a couple of weeks to take a good, hard look at their team and decide whether they want to make one final run with this group.
