Kevin Durant scores 30 as Nets cruise past Wizards for 4th win in row
Nets forward Kevin Durant grabs the rebound against Wizards forward Corey Kispert and center Kristaps Porzingis during the first half of an NBA game Monday in Washington. Credit: AP/Nick Wass
WASHINGTON — Not long ago, the Nets were the laughingstock of the NBA.
After beginning the season with championship aspirations, they had opened by going 6-9, parted ways with coach Steve Nash and struggled to find chemistry — and the defense was so bad that on Nov. 15, they allowed the Sacramento Kings to score 153 points.
That team bears little resemblance to the one that picked up its fourth straight win Monday night, a 112-100 victory over the Washington Wizards.
The Nets (17-12) are one of the hottest teams in the NBA, having won eight of their last nine and 11 of their last 14. Since Nov. 15, the Nets have risen from 12th place in the Eastern Conference to fourth.
The win was a workmanlike affair in which the Nets held a low-double-digits lead for most of the second half. They held the Wizards to 45 points after halftime.
The Nets were led by Kevin Durant’s 30 points, nine rebounds, six assists and a blocked shot. Kyrie Irving added 24 points and two blocks and played at such a high level defensively that he propelled himself into the stands in the fourth quarter trying to save a ball with his team up by 11.
T.J. Warren scored 12 points off the bench, Joe Harris added 11 and Ben Simmons had 10 points and eight rebounds.
“We’re building something,” Durant said. “We have to continue to keep fine-tuning. We want to be connected on both ends of the floor. If someone gets beat, we have to be there. I think we’ve been preaching that. The hustle plays come with that and everyone is buying into it.”
Will Barton led Washington (11-17) with 22 points. Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma each added 20.
Coach Jacque Vaughn had given his top eight rotation players a rest Saturday night in Indiana, and the Nets won anyway. Durant, who is from nearby Prince George’s County, didn’t make the trip to Indiana and met the team in Washington.
The move, though not beloved by the NBA, which wants its stars to play in every city, worked well for the Nets in that it gave their top players some much-needed rest and gave the reserves both playing time and confidence.
Durant clearly enjoyed playing in front of some of his friends and family. At one point, after making a block, he paused on the court and grinned toward the stands.
Irving was asked after the game if the Nets had turned the corner and if this winning is sustainable.
“Let’s just go win ballgames,” he said. “That’s the attitude. We know the talent we have. No more excuses. No more distractions. We just want everyone to be healthy and have fun and play their game.”
Vaughn, who took over as coach for Nash when the team was 2-5, doesn’t know what the future holds for his team or, for that matter, who will be on it (the unofficial beginning of the trading season is Thursday). He did agree that the team seems to have turned a corner.
“I think we’ve committed ourselves to playing for and with each other,” Vaughn said. “We just asked the guys to play hard. At the end of the day, you can cover up a lot of things by just playing hard. So we’ve taken that approach for most nights, and I’ll continue to talk about the consistency of playing hard. That’s our next challenge.
“But this group has started to learn about each other — the rotations, who plays well with each other on both ends of the floor. So overall I said to the group: This is our group. This is us right now. So each night we come into the game, this is us, and we’re going to try to win the ballgame.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
