Kyrie Irving struggled badly against the Bulls and the Nets collapsed late to end a messy day.
Meanwhile Josh Giddey returned to action and impressed before his coach pulled a surprise move.
Catch up on all of the day’s action in our NBA Wrap!
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IRVING STRUGGLES BADLY AS NETS COLLAPSE
Kyrie Irving struggled badly and the Nets collapsed against the Chicago Bulls 99-108 to end a messy day for Brooklyn that saw it part ways with coach Steve Nash and fall to 2-6.
Irving went scoreless through three quarters and ended up with four points – his fewest ever for the Nets – on 2-of-12 shooting from the field with six rebounds and seven assists in 32 minutes of action on Wednesday (all times AEDT) in a forgettable performance.
The star guard, who’s averaged 30 points per game this season, even didn’t finish the first half on the court due to the other Nets playing well.
“That is just 100 per cent stress. Sports are hard to play and when you are under stress it affects your game,” NBA legend Charles Barkley said on NBA TNT at half-time.
“Everyone is looking about you and talking about you .. you can tell because he’s not being aggressive.”
Chicago’s Zach LaVine exploded with 20 of his 29 points in the fourth when the Bulls outscored the Nets 31-19 to rally home for the win.
Durant topscored with 32 points for Brooklyn and Royce O’Neale matched his career-high 20, while Ben Simmons missed a second-straight game with a knee issue.
Asked if Irving was distracted by the day’s events, Nets interim coach Jacque Vaughn said post-match: “I told the guys there‘s no excuses. Whether it’s back to back, no excuses. Whether the changing scenery scenery of today, no excuses. This is what we do for a living, what we signed up for. It was game day so we gotta bring it”
Irving have been scrutinised in the fallout of Nash’s departure as the team’s 2-6 start has been marred by off-court drama including the star guard’s social media promotion of an anti anti-Semitic film.
Barkley said prior to the Nets’ clash with Chicago he believes the NBA should’ve suspended Irving, while fellow league great Shaquille O‘Neal labelled Irving an “idiot.”
“I think he should have been suspended … I think the NBA made a mistake,” Barkley said on NBA TNT.
“We have suspended & fined people for making homophobic slurs, and that was the right thing to do, like if you insult the black community, you get suspended.”
Though the Nets held a halftime lead, and looked for much of the night to at least be giving a better effort on defence, they ultimately lost a game they spent much of the night commanding, giving away a 10-point lead with just over two minutes to go in the third quarter to trail within the opening minute of the fourth. They were outscored by double digits in the final period and finished the night with 17 turnovers.
Brooklyn didn’t let the Bulls pull away from there, trading baskets with Chicago and leaning on some timely play from O’Neale, but the damage was done.
LaVine’s shooting touch helped put the Bulls over the top, as two straight 3s from LaVine extended Chicago’s lead to nine with just under six minutes to go. Unlike the Nets, the Bulls would hang onto their lead.
LaVine finished with 29 points and five assists and, as Brooklyn sputtered late in the fourth, the Bulls kept at it, forcing a key turnover by Kevin Durant when the Nets had a chance to cut the lead to five just under the four-minute mark. Instead, LaVine keyed a 5-0 run to push Chicago’s lead to 12 and prompt fans to exit Barclays Center.
On a day where quite literally everything went wrong for the Nets before a ball touched the hardwood, it was only fitting to end with a loss.
The bigger story from Wednesday was everything else — Nash’s firing, the organisation’s continued fumbling of the Kyrie Irving situation, the seemingly imminent hire of Ime Udoka, who is currently suspended by the Celtics for an improper relationship with a subordinate — but the Nets themselves still have a basketball team to focus on.
And it doesn’t help matters that the team is still playing far below its talent.
Durant held up everyone else on Wednesday and hauling the Nets into a competitive game nearly by himself.
The defence, which interim coach Jacque Vaughn said pregame needs to play with more effort, played reasonably well for much of the night, but collapsed when it mattered, failing to stop LaVine during his fourth-quarter explosion.
It’s only eight games into the season, but it’s hard to ever imagine a worse day for the franchise.
The scary part for the Nets is that there are still 74 games left for imagination to become reality.
–Original story written by Ethan Sears from New York Post
GIDDEY LIGHTS UP IN RETURN BEFORE GETTING BENCHED LATE
Josh Giddey hadn’t missed a beat in his return from a three-game absence due to a an ankle injury.
The Aussie had seven points, 10 assists, a steal and a block in 25 minutes and was showing off all his usual tricks as the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Orlando Magic 116-108.
It included Giddey playing more aggressively offensively and attacking the rim while setting up his teammates with nice passing.
However Giddey was surprisingly brought off the bench to start the second half and also didn’t finish the game as the Thunder rallied home in the fourth 31-20 to close out the win.
It came behind 34 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, adding six assists, three steals and two blocks to continue his enormous season.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault revealed the decision to not close with Giddey was due to wanting more “balance” on the court, also pointing out how he was still working his way back from injury.
Wendell Carter Jr. led the way for Orlando with 30 points and 12 rebounds and Bol Bol added 13 points, 12 boards and four blocks.
It marked OKC’s fourth-straight win to improve to 4-3, while the Magic dropped to 1-7.
WARRIORS DROP THIRD STRAIGHT
The Golden State Warriors slumped to a third straight loss with a 116-109 defeat to the Miami Heat in Florida.
A back-and-forth game saw nine lead changes before Miami finally pulled clear in the closing stages of the fourth quarter to claim a win that leaves the NBA champion Warriors at 3-5 for the season.
Max Strus led the Miami scoring with 24 points while Jimmy Butler added 23 with six rebounds and eight assists.
Stephen Curry had a triple double for the Warriors, with 23 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists but it was not enough to drag Golden State over the line.
ALL RESULTS
BULLS 108 NETS 99
WARRIORS 109 HEAT 116
MAGIC 108 THUNDER 116
TIMBERWOLVES – SUNS
