The Brooklyn Nets are the latest NBA super team, a juggler with two former MVPs Kevin Durant and James Harden and the owner of one of the biggest shots in NBA Finals history to Kyrie Irving, who it is also considered the best the sport has seen.
But LeBron James was unwilling to declare the trio as an unprecedented set when asked about Brooklyn ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers ’first game against the New Picture Nets this Thursday.
“Um, have we forgotten about KD, Steph (Curry) and Klay (Thompson)?” James said after the Lakers’ 112-104 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night. “I mean, there you go. There you go.”
James knows the Golden State Warriors group is grouping well: he beat his Cleveland Cavaliers for consecutive championships in 2017 and 18th.
But the average points Durant, Curry and Thompson averaged together in their three seasons together was 75.8 per game in 2018-19.
Durant (29.0), Irving (28.3) and Harden (23.9) entered an average of 80.7 points for the Nets on Tuesday this season.
Thursday’s showdown will lack firepower. LA will be without Anthony Davis, who suffered from calf strain and aggravated Achilles tendinosis in his right leg on Sunday. He will see team doctors when the Lakers return home Wednesday.
“We’ll see how he responds to treatment and he’ll be reassessed in a couple of weeks,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said Tuesday.
On the other hand, Durant has missed the last two games with a strain on his hamstring and Irving was left out of Tuesday’s comeback win against the Phoenix Suns with a strain on his lower back.
That said, James said he looks forward to seeing these networks in person for the first time.
“It’s always exciting for me to go against some of the best guys in the game, and they have three,” he said. “They had three of the best guys in the game. They would definitely love to be full when you play against a team like that and you see, like at that point in the season, how do you match, how do you match? Against some of the best teams in the league. And, “Obviously we won’t be full on Thursday. But other than that, yes, I love going out here and being on the ground with some of the best to play this game.”
James’ teammate Montrezl Harrell was less than enthusiastic. He was part of the NBA’s brilliant new toy with the LA Clippers last season, when the historically inadequate franchise added Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and became instant favorites to win the title.
Perhaps going through all this hype, just to be a part of the Clippers ’second-round playoff exit at the Denver Nuggets, taught him that the regular season isn’t always the best indicator of postseason success.
“Honestly, I don’t really care,” Harrell said. “We go to every game with a game plan, we know offensively and defensively what we want to do to win that game, and that will be the same thing we will have to do when we play on Thursday.
“There’s nothing different. We’re not spinning this game. We’re not putting any extra emphasis on this game. It’s like any other game: we’re playing one game at a time. We’re still learning, we’re still growing and we’re still building each other. with the others, and we will have to do it on a higher level with the loss of one of our great pieces [in Davis]. “