While Kevin Durant’s “big three” Brooklyn Nets, James Harden and Kyrie Irving continue to work to build their chemistry on the track, Irving and Harden held a brief conversation in practice this week to clarify their roles.
“We set it up maybe four days ago,” Irving said after the Nets ’win over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday by 134-117. “I just looked at him and said, ‘You’re the pointer, and I’m going to shoot the shot.’ It was that simple.”
Irving described the conversation as concise and real.
“We haven’t had a mystical conversation,” Irving said.
In Saturday’s game against the Warriors, Harden had 16 assists, increasing his average by 11.3 assists per game since joining the Nets in mid-January. It is the most assists he has delivered since the 2016-17 season, when he led the league with 11.2 assists per game for the Houston Rockets.
“He’s been taking control of responsibilities and doing an amazing job,” Irving said. “It just makes my job easier to just go out and play free and just play.”
When Harden, a multiple-scoring champion, was added to the Nets ’mix, a key question was: will basketball be enough?
Harden had discussed with head coach Steve Nash his willingness to play any necessary role upon his arrival from Houston.
On Saturday against the Warriors, Harden, Irving and Durant scored or helped score 100 points for Brooklyn. The seventh game the trio played together was held on Saturday, including last week’s game with the Toronto Raptors, during which Durant retired from the field due to the league’s coronavirus protocols.
Their record together is 5-2, including the loss to the Raptors that Durant could not finish.
“I came to this team knowing they have two special scorers on this team,” Harden said. “Obviously I score when I need to, but as long as I’m involved in everyone and Ky (Irving) gets the shots he wants, KD gets the shots he wants, he’s pretty efficient. Offensively it’s not a problem for us, we can score in groups; it’s defensive. It looks like we’re picking up a pace until late. We just have to keep it up. “