PHILADELPHIA — The night began with boos for Ben Simmons.
The night ended with boos for the 76ers, and cheers from the traveling Nets faithful after the arena cleared.
Kevin Durant best summed the swing just a few seconds after taking the podium following Thursday’s game — a landslide, 129-100 victory over the 76ers that re-legitimized the Nets as conference juggernauts and championship contenders.
“It was a good environment to start. It didn’t finish that way. It didn’t feel (hostile) when we left off the court,” Kevin Durant said postgame. “It’s hard for you to chant at Ben Simmons when you’re losing by so much.”
Philly fans booed Simmons, the ex-Sixers star who joined the Nets in the James Harden trade, every time he was visible: When he entered the team hotel after the bus arrived in Philadelphia; when he assisted Patty Mills during pregame warmups, and when he emerged from the locker room wearing a black-and-yellow hockey jersey to join his team on the bench as a spectator for Thursday night’s rivalry game.
Those boos may have impacted Simmons, who smiled at times when the fans poured on, but they had the opposite effect on a Nets team that rallied around their Australian star to string together their most dominant performance of the second half of the season.
“I think playing for Ben on this night meant something to Ben,” Kyrie Irving said postgame. “We all felt it. We’re all there. … If you come at Ben, you come at us. You come at anyone else on our team, you come at all of us, and that’s the mentality.”
The Nets ignored the theatrics and made quick work of the new-look Sixers, leading by as many as 36 en route to a blowout victory. It was the most focused performance the Nets have put forth in the aftermath of the blockbuster deal that uprooted their roster mid-season, and they have won two straight since their get-right victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday.
“I think it’s great for our confidence,” said head coach Steve Nash. “We’ve had such a rough stretch with injuries and trying to put this thing together and build some cohesion and understanding. It’s nice to have two games in a row where you play well and the ball goes in the basket. It brings everyone together a little bit and puts relief and confidence in what we are trying to do.”
The Nets connected on a flurry of first-quarter haymakers, and the Sixers never recovered. Brooklyn hung a 40-point first quarter and took a 17-point lead into the second period. The Nets neutralized James Harden who shot just 3-of-17 from the field and missed 11 of his first 12 shots. Poor shooting has been typical of Harden in games he struggles to get to the free throw line. Taking foul shots away had been an area of emphasis for the Nets already, Nash said, but even more so given Harden’s crafty and deceptive history.
Yet in many respects, it was a typical performance for Harden, who struggled both to find his offense at the beginning of the season in the face of the NBA’s rule changes on shooting fouls and to find a shooting touch in his final days in Brooklyn.
The Beard shot just 2-of-11 against the Sacramento Kings, 6-of-19 against the Phoenix Suns and 4-of-13 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in three of his last games against the Nets before the trade to Philly. His game against the Nets was his worst since he joined the Sixers. It also marked Philly’s first loss in a game both he and Joel Embiid have played in since the trade. The Sixers were 5-0 in such games before the loss to the Nets.
“(Only) two free throws tonight for (Harden), 3-for-17 (from the field), tried to get to the rim but I think we were all there swarming,” Durant said of the defense on his former teammate. “When he’s getting to the rim, getting downhill, getting to the free throw line, that’s when he’s tough to stop and we eliminated a lot of that stuff — 3-for-17, 11 points, that’s a great formula for us to win.”
As the boos piled in the Sixers’ direction, Nets fans intensified their chants for their team. 76ers fans exited the arena early into the fourth quarter when it became clear no level of heroics would save their team. Meanwhile, Nets fans hung back and chanted “Brooook-lynnnnnn” relentlessly in an all-but-empty arena.
Those fans also surrounded Durant atop the tunnel leading to the locker room as he walked off the Wells Fargo Center floors after the game.
“Our fans traveled,” said Durant. “It was pretty remarkable to see Brooklyn fans because the label on us is that we don’t have any fans. So to hear them in a huge arena like this, fighting against another energetic crowd like the Sixers fans, it was exciting to see.”
“I’ve been seeing it more and more the last couple of years now that I’ve been here. Fans are starting to travel more and more to support us.”
Durant, Kyrie Irving and Seth Curry scored 25 of the Nets’ first 26 points and combined for 71 on the night. At one point, the trio had scored 44 points to Philly’s 42.
And to think: At some point, Simmons will be off the bench and on the floor joining the players who just reduced his former teammates to ash. It makes the victory that much sweeter for the Nets: They just unraveled the Eastern Conference’s third seed, and they did it without their third-best player.
“I think Ben is special because of all the different things he does on the floor, from defense rebounding, facilitating and scoring,” Nash said postgame. “So I want him to play in a lot of different ways and be a problem for other teams in multiple facets of the game.”
Thursday night’s victory moves the Nets just two games behind the Toronto Raptors for the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference. They also have the NBA’s fourth-easiest remaining schedule, and with the Philly game now behind him, Simmons is expected to overcome his back soreness, get in shape and join the rotation in the coming weeks.
Yet even without Simmons, even without Joe Harris (out for the season with ankle soreness), and even without LaMarcus Aldridge (hip), the Nets proved the better team by a mile. Joel Embiid scored 27 points but did all of his damage from the foul line, where he shot 15-of-19 from the field in the first half alone. The Nets sent doubles at Embiid and rushed him every time he touched the ball, forcing him into a 5-of-17 shooting night from the field.
Meanwhile, the Nets shot 56% as a team and 45% from deep, featuring 25 points from Durant, 24 from Curry and another 22 from Irving. They also held the Sixers to less than 120 points for their first time in any games Harden and Embiid have played together.
As dominant of a victory as Thursday night was for the Nets, it’s only one mark in the win column. Brooklyn is still fighting an uphill battle: They remain at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, still in need of a Hail Mary to evade the end-of-the-season play-in tournament.
Yet with Irving, Durant and Curry, the Nets proved more than capable of handling a top-four Eastern Conference foe.
“We’re getting better, we’re getting used to playing with each other,” said Curry. “We got a lot of veteran guys, a deep team, a lot of guys who in a short amount of time are coming together, playing together and making it easier for everyone else. It’s more of a regular season game but it’s a big stepping stone.”
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