An 18-point loss at home is bad enough. The crowd very clearly pulling for the other team, though? That’s what we call a tough scene.
On Tuesday night, the Brooklyn Nets welcomed the Golden State Warriors to the Barclays Center in what we had hoped would be an entertaining battle between the two early MVP frontrunners: Kevin Durant and Steph Curry.
We were surely on pace for it. The first quarter featured 64 total points with the Nets leading by three. After that? Brooklyn would be out-scored 86-65 and got their doors blown off 117-99. Curry dropped 37 and was 9-of-14 from 3-point range.
For Brooklyn, Durant and James Harden could only combine for 43 points. In the second quarter, you had a feeling this one was going to get away from the Nets quickly unless one of those two took over. Neither did. Of their 43 points, only 12 came in the second half.
If you didn’t feel comfortable with 31 in the first half between them, then that ending was demoralizing. And with this peppered in as the night went on? Miserable.
MVP chants for Steph in Brooklyn 🗣 pic.twitter.com/y02qvVCgDX
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) November 17, 2021
The Barclays Center embarrassed the Nets against the Warriors.
Durant, who led the league in scoring coming into this one, was listening to the crowd at the Barclays Center chant “M-V-P” for Curry in the … second quarter?! We’re on the East Coast? Excuse us?
Making fun of Knicks fans for the “bing bong” insanity after their season-opening win in double overtime against the Celtics was somewhat understandable. Until now. Nets “fans” (anybody home?) really made one of the league’s best teams look like a laughingstock on national TV.
Down by 20 and having to hear a Warriors chant with less than two minutes remaining? Sure, some fanbases travel well. But they certainly don’t travel across the country for a regular season NBA game on a Tuesday evening.
Was every microbrewery in Brooklyn having the most epic happy hour from 7-10 p.m. ET? Or has Curry captivated a new generation of younger fans on this side of the US throughout his marvelous career and converted them to Dubs supporters? Or are there simply too many people from the Bay Area working/living in New York City nowadays? How was the Barclays Center not packed to the brim with Nets fans on a night like this?
For crying out loud, every New York sports team for the last decade has failed over and over with little overall hype to keep fans as engaged and excited as they should be. The Nets have a chance to turn that all around, but they can’t even get their supporters to come out and watch a battle between two of the top three teams in the NBA.
Nets vs. Warriors could be preview of Kevin Durant-Steph Curry MVP race
Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors will visit Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night for a matchup between the top two MVP candidates.