Brooklyn went big with Jeff Green at power forward next to Durant, Joe Harris sliding down to off-guard and Bruce Brown going to the bench. But the Nets still got beaten on the boards, run off the court 26-4 in fast-break points, and left in an 11-2 early hole that reached 21 and proved too much to overcome.
“The biggest thing is just how we start,” Landry Shamet had warned beforehand. “Even going back to the other night in Game 5, slow start, struggled to find our rhythm early, didn’t play with the right physicality. Things really that we can control that we did really, really well in Game 1 and Game 2, jump out to a big lead. “Those are the biggest things that we’re missing in the two road losses. It’s our energy, how we start the game. That’s all we can control, so that’s our plan going forward.”
