Make that seven consecutive wins for James Harden, Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets beat the Sacramento Kings 127-118 fresh off a five-game Western Conference road trip. This team is starting to hit their stride, and the swagger of the Nets stars is becoming infectious.
Bruce Brown Shimmies in Front of Kings Bench
Tim Nwachukwu/Getty ImagesBruce Brown #1 of the Brooklyn Nets recovers a loose ball during the second quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers on February 6, 2021, in Philadelphia.
Nets forward Bruce Brown has replaced their star Kevin Durant in the lineup while Durant continues to deal with a hamstring injury suffered February 13. He is starting to make big plays like KD, too.
In the final moments of the fourth quarter, Brown hit his second consecutive three-pointer and put the final nail in the coffin of any hopes that the Kings had for a comeback. Brown then shimmied right in front of the Sacramento bench.
The Brooklyn Nets went ballistic after seeing what he did.
Bruce Brown hit a three and shimmied in front of the Kings bench 😂
Nets were hyped
Brown said the Kings had it coming:
Bruce Brown said the Kings bench was talking smack to him. After he hit the second 3 he decided to give them the shimmy.
Brown scored a career-high 29 points in the win. Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash talked about what Brown means to this Nets team.
“Bruce is remarkable. He mostly played point guard last year, and now he’s what? Playing our center?” Nash said to reporters after the win, via SNY.
“He mostly played point guard last year and he’s playing – what do you want to call him, our center?” 😂
Steve Nash reflects on the effort of Bruce Brown (career-high 29 points) tonight
Nash also alluded to Brown’s toughness despite the position that he plays and his willingness to set screens all game to free up the Nets scorers:
Nash asked about Brown’s game, said a lot of guards “would laugh you out of the gym” if you asked them to set picks as much as Brown does.
Harden Deserves MVP Consideration
Harden is slowly but surely creeping his way into the MVP conversation. “The Beard” messed around and got a triple-double on Tuesday. Harden finished with a stat line of 37 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists.
Harden already has six triple-doubles with the Nets this season. That is the second-most triple-doubles in Nets history. He only trails Jason Kidd, who has 61 triple-doubles, according to Stat Muse.
James Harden tonight:
29 PTS
11 REB
14 AST
5 3PT
It’s his 6th triple-double with the Nets, already the 2nd most in franchise history (Jason Kidd, 61).
Irving had a solid outing as well. The seven-time all-star finished with 21 points and 7 assists.
On the season Irving is averaging 27.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game. Irving is still on pace to join the 50-40-90 club this year as he is shooting 52.5% from the field, 40.9% from three and 90.1% from the free-throw line.
The Nets losing to the lowly Detroit Pistons seems like such a long time ago. This is not that same team. The Nets are all on one accord and actually making an effort to defend. This team is in an entirely different mode than it was two weeks ago, and Harden is loving it.
Harden Says This Is a Different Nets Team
“I think for us we can’t worry about what happened two weeks ago or our mindset. I think now we’re in a whole different mindset and we’re just going to stay that way,” Harden told reporters after the win via SNY.
“Now we’re in a whole different mindset”
James Harden knows this Nets team is much different than where they were a couple weeks ago
“We don’t look at the names on the jersey, we look at ourselves and figure out how we can be great every single night and we prepare ourselves and much as we can, and we go out there and play our brand of basketball every single night. As of lately, we’ve been doing that at a high level and in which we’ll continue to do that,” Harden said.
Harden and the Nets will be looking for their eighth consecutive win when they take on the Orlando Magic on Tuesday.
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