National Basketball Association

Nets dominate first of (hopefully) many matchups with Sixers

Updated Mar. 13, 2022 5:19 p.m. ET

By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer

PHILADELPHIA — We knew there’d be boos. But who knew that most of them in the second half would be directed at the Sixers, as opposed to Ben Simmons?

Thursday’s much anticipated, mega-hyped Nets-Sixers battle turned out to be a dud.

"It was a good environment to start," Kevin Durant said after recording 25 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. "It didn’t finish that way."

I could tell you that the final score was 129-100, but honestly, those numbers are meaningless. The Nets scored a lot. The Sixers didn’t. The end.

But that doesn’t mean there weren’t lessons to be gleaned from this bludgeoning.

Here are a few.

James Harden has a kryptonite.

Harden finished the night with 11 points. He misfired on 14 of his 17 shots. He attempted just two free throws. The Sixers were outscored by 30 points in the 29 minutes he was on the floor.

"I just missed shots," Harden said after the game. "There’s no excuses. I gotta be better."

He’s right. His decision-making was slow. He missed some step-backs he normally drills. But the Nets also deserve credit for triggering this short-circuiting.

The blueprint was one we’ve seen before. Wall off the rim. Guard him aggressively but without fouling. Take away his clean looks. This, of course, is easier said than done, but it’s also a scheme a number of teams have successfully deployed against Harden in the postseason.

"He relies a lot on free throws, so getting to the rim and getting to the free-throw line puts him in rhythm," Durant said, adding: "When he’s getting downhill, getting to the free-throw line, that’s when they’re tough to stop, and we eliminated a lot of that stuff."

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After the game, Harden tried to offer some perspective on the performance. "This is only our sixth game together as a unit," he said. "I’m still trying to figure things out."

He added that he believed there was a silver lining to the beatdown.

"Since I’ve been here, everything has been sweet, and we’ve been winning games," he said. "And so tonight was good for us. We get an opportunity to come down to reality, watch film and just continue to get better."

That’s all fair. But the fact that we’ve seen these sorts of issues plague Harden before has to have the Sixers — and their fans — at least a bit concerned.

The Nets are really, really, really good … when Kyrie Irving plays.

While watching this game up close and seeing how explosive, cohesive and dominant this Nets team looked, I couldn’t help but think that this is what the Nets would have looked like all season if Irving had been able to play home games.

We’ll skip whether Irving was right or wrong in his decision to not get jabbed and whether he and the Nets have been wronged by the New York City mandate.

What we do know is that when Irving and Durant both play, the Nets become one of if not the toughest matchup in the NBA.

If you’re looking for some statistical evidence: the Nets had outscored opponents by 10.2 points per 100 possessions with Durant and Irving on the floor before Thursday night’s shellacking.

The Nets are a perfect home for Ben Simmons.

The on-the-court case is obvious. Simmons will be joining a team full of flamethrowers, as Thursday’s box score makes clear. That means he won’t need to worry about shooting. He can focus on facilitating and playing D.

But it’s also clear that he has joined a team that not only wants him to succeed but also appears invested in helping him do so. When Simmons stepped onto the Wells Fargo Center floor for the first time during pregame warmups, with boos raining down, it was Durant who went over to him and offered encouragement and support.

"I think all of us were … we look at Ben as our brother," Durant said after the game.

Irving echoed those thoughts.

"If you come at Ben, you come at us," he said.

The Nets have a rough road ahead. At 34-33, they’re in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, five games behind the sixth-ranked Cleveland Cavaliers. That means they’re likely destined for the play-in tournament.

If that’s the case, there’s a good chance they'll be forced to travel to Toronto (the Raptors, currently in seventh, have a two-game lead on the Nets) for the opening round, meaning Irving would be unable to play. If the Nets were to lose there, they’d likely head back to Brooklyn for a win-or-go-home matchup with the Charlotte Hornets or Atlanta Hawks.

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Then again, this is a team that can beat anyone, that can make contenders look like JV squads. If the Nets are able to escape the play-in and get Simmons back on the floor, they’ll be a team no one wants to face.

The Nets really don’t like James Harden.

Do you think it was a coincidence that suddenly this group looked locked in and engaged and played defense like Larry Brown’s Pistons?

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We need to see these teams face off in the playoffs.

This game was a bust, but the emotions were there. Make it a best-of-seven, add some stakes and put Ben Simmons in uniform, and I think we’d get something special.

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.