NEW YORK, United States —
Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant combined for 55
points as the Brooklyn Nets held off a rally from the Indiana Pacers on Sunday
to seal seventh place in the Eastern Conference and clinch home advantage for
next week’s play-in.
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The Nets’ final
regular season game looked set to be a blowout for long periods as
Brooklyn jumped out to an 18-point lead in the first half.
But a dogged
Pacers unit drew level at 89–89 with less than five minutes remaining in the
third quarter before Brooklyn regrouped to pull clear and run out 134–126
winners.
The win means
Brooklyn will have a home game against the
Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday where
a victory will see them enter directly into the playoffs as the seventh seed.
The Nets will
head into that showdown buoyed by the recent form of Irving and Durant.
Irving finished
with 35 points, seven rebounds and five assists on Sunday, going 15-of-20 from
the field.
Durant,
meanwhile, completed a triple double of 20 points, 10 rebounds, and a
career-high 16 assists while Brooklyn had six players finish in double figures.
“It’s been an up
and down last few weeks for us — winning some games, losing some games,” Durant
said afterwards.
“I think we’re
finding out who we are as a group and that’s always a good thing.”
Durant is now
looking forward to the business end of the season, starting with Tuesday’s
assignment against Cleveland.
“It’s been a
long year and this is the perfect time of the year to play our best
basketball,” Durant said.
A Brooklyn
victory over Cleveland on Tuesday would see the Nets face the second-seeded
Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Tatum ‘proud’ of
Celtics
That crunch showdown — which would pit Irving against his former club —
was made possible after the Celtics vaulted over the Milwaukee Bucks into
second place in the standings.
The Celtics
clinched the second seed after a 139–110 blowout of the Memphis Grizzlies in
their final game on Sunday.
Celtics star
Jayson Tatum led the rout with 31 points — making 11-of-14 from the field — in
just 26 minutes of action court. Jaylen Brown added 18 points with Al Al
Horford scoring 13.
The Grizzlies,
who had already clinched second place in the Western Conference, rested several
of their starters.
The Celtics rise
to the second seeding is all the more remarkable given their indifferent early
season form.
As recently as
February, Boston were languishing in ninth place in the East, well outside the
automatic playoff places.
“It was a tough
one, I’m proud of my group and proud of how we responded throughout the
season,” Tatum said afterwards.
“It didn’t start
off well but we managed to figure it out and we’ve been on a roll and hopefully
we’ll keep it going through the playoffs.”
Milwaukee
meanwhile dropped to third in the Eastern Conference standings after their
under-strength lineup was thumped 133–115 by the Cavaliers in Cleveland on
Sunday.
The Bucks were
without key players
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, and Bobby Portis
for the game, which was notable for a bizarre fleeting cameo by mainstay Jrue
Holiday.
Holiday came
onto the court for the tipoff and promptly committed a foul after eight seconds
before leaving the court without returning.
Reports said the brief
appearance allowed him to collect a $255,000 bonus included in his contract for
appearing in 67 games this season.
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