Previewing Cavs-Nets and the NBA Play-in Matchups

Should Brooklyn worry about its porous defense against a team that has Darius Garland? Will Evan Mobley defend Kevin Durant?

In today’s episode, Michael and Rohan preview all four play-in games with a deep dive into some individual matchups, strategic advantages and key X factors. Should Brooklyn worry about its porous defense against a team that has Darius Garland? Will Evan Mobley defend Kevin Durant? 

The following transcript is an excerpt from the Open Floor podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.

Michael Pina: We’ve been waiting for a Nets play-In game I feel like for months. They get the seven seed, so they will host the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Kyrie Irving can play so congratulations to the Nets organization for handling this brilliantly throughout the past six months. They got what they want, I suppose. And I think that that’s our heavy favorites in this game. And I don’t know how close it’s necessarily going to be. Their last matchup was actually kind of competitive without Jarett Allen and basically Durant played 41 minutes, Kyrie played 40 minutes. Is that just the strategy? Is that just Brooklyn strategy from this point on? Steve Nash is just like, Our defense is going to be terrible no matter what. They gave up what, like 120-something to the Pacers and in a pretty important game. It was just like these guys can’t stop TJ McConnell in a pick-and-roll. But is their strategy in this game, does it boil down to: We’re just going to play Kevin Durant 47 minutes and Kyrie Irving 45 minutes. Is that basically what it is?

Rohan Nadkarni: No, I think that they’ve proven that that’s what their strategy is. They don’t care about the regular season, they don’t care about defense, they have the ultimate trump card and they’re like, yeah, if you want to go shot for shot, we have the best shot maker in the history of the sport who can hit any shot from anywhere on the court. Like good luck, yeah.

Michael Pina: They have two of those guys! They have two.

Rohan Nadkarni: Exactly. And yeah, and they both have done it on the biggest stage. Like, oh, you want to have Tyrese Haliburton go shot for shot with KD and Kyrie? Sure. Pick a player, they’ll gladly say let’s trade buckets and see who comes out on top. And they don’t mind, they are also forgoing modern sports sciences, and yeah, we’ll play Kevin Durant 46 minutes a night every game in the playoffs. He wants to do it, we’re cool with it, let’s go. The Nets are literally heavy betting favorites in this game for many reasons. I’d be shocked if they lost this game. And honestly that strategy has largely worked for them. I mean, even their playoff loss depended a lot on a wrong shoe size and James Harden’s hamstring injury. This team is just going to be very hard to beat. And when you have Durant I think they welcome any challenges. 

Listen to the Open Floor Podcast