Kevin Durant had 32 points and six assists as the Brooklyn Nets on Monday rolled to their largest playoff win in franchise history with a 125-86 beatdown of the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 2 of their NBA series.
Kyrie Irving finished with 22 points and four threes, while Joe Harris and Bruce Brown each scored 13 for the Nets, who seized a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series.
Durant said he did not want to settle for anything less than a championship.
Photo: AFP
“We still got a long ways to go,” he said. “When we play hard together, good things happen.”
“I think we’re capable of greatness every single night,” Irving said.
The series now switches to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for Game 3 tomorrow.
“For the most part we just did what we were supposed to do, win two at home, and we’ve got to see if this game is going to travel on the road for us and we’ve got to stay locked in,” Durant said.
The Nets were missing all-star James Harden to a hamstring injury, but it is a situation they have become accustomed to all season long. A string of injuries has limited the time that Durant, Irving and Harden have been able to suit up in the same game, and they played just eight games together during the regular season.
However, once the Nets got over the initial shock of Harden getting hurt in the first minute of Game 1, they have not looked back, winning both games at home in dominant style.
The Nets led by as much as 49 points in Game 2. Their 39-point win, in front of a crowd of 15,700 at the Barclays Center arena, is their largest playoff victory ever and the biggest since beating the Golden State Warriors in a regular season game by 41 points, 129-88, in February last year.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was held to just 18 points, but still managed a triple-double by adding 11 rebounds and 10 assists for the Bucks, who have fallen behind 2-0 in a second round playoff series for the second season in a row.
Milwaukee lost the first three games to Miami before being eliminated in five games during the second round last season.
“I don’t get too high, I don’t get too low. After the Miami series, we were up 4-0, and coming to this series, I wasn’t high. Now that we’re down 2-0, I’m not low,” Antetokounmpo said.
The Bucks have been let down by their three-point shooting, missing 43 of 57 from beyond the arc in the first two contests.
Elsewhere, Chris Paul finished with 21 points and 11 assists to power the second seeded Phoenix Suns to a 122-105 win over the Denver Nuggets in the opening game of their second-round series.
Mikal Bridges scored 23 points, Devin Booker tallied 21 points, and Deandre Ayton delivered 20 points and 10 rebounds for Phoenix, who outscored the Nuggets 59-33 in the final 20 minutes.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB