Mavericks' Double-Teams Flustered Nets' Kevin Durant

Getting ball out of Kevin Durant's hands played big part in Dallas win

With Kyrie Irving ineligible to play at Barclays Center, the Dallas Mavericks' game-planning efforts against the Brooklyn Nets were heavily predicated on slowing down Kevin Durant in their 113-111 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday.

A basic strategy was to make Durant see early double-teams to get the basketball out of his hands instead going with a single defender.

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Sterling Brown Guards Kevin Durant

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Kevin Durant Drives Against Mavericks

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Dorian Finney-Smith Guards Kevin Durant

Durant finished with 23 points while shooting 8-20 from the floor (40 percent) along with four turnovers. He did record 10 assists, a result of passing earlier in possessions than he's been accustomed to. 

“We weren’t going to try to let (Durant) play at all tonight,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “The guys, again, I give them credit, because it’s easy to see other guys scoring the ball, and sometimes you take that ‘I mentality’ like 'my guy is scoring.’

“But again, it’s the growth of our trust that our guys have with the coaching staff or the game plan. Everyone stayed the course and we just tried to make it as hard as possible on KD and not let him play. We felt that we wanted someone else beat us tonight. Again, they were in position – (Durant) made the go-ahead basket — but we found a way to win.”

The Mavericks' strategy of making someone else beat them was aided by Irving being ineligible to play. Dallas did the same with former Nets guard James Harden when Durant and Irving were out.

Considering that Ben Simmons is also out, the short-handed Nets were forced to rely on role players making plays consistently. 

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Kyrie Irving vs. Magic

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Ben Simmons

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Kyrie Irving Shoots Free Throw

Durant jokingly shared that he tried to bait Kidd into not deploying the double-teams. 

"That shows me that the level of respect is high," Durant said. "For them to forget about their schemes as a team, forget about what they've been working on most of the year for them to do that.

"I asked Jason Kidd - 'Well s**t, you pay Dorian Finney-Smith all that money, is he a defender or you gonna rely on this [defense] for these next four years on him?'"

"It's a smart strategy. You've got to tip your hat to them, they executed it. Late in the game, they did a good job of mixing it up. Sometimes I was driving, I had a lane and am thinking there was more help and I rushed the shot. So they did their job with it, I respect it."