Brooklyn Nets Trying to Blaze New Trail to an NBA Title

Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets know where they want to go, a fact made plain in the All-Star point guard's comments following Tuesday's 124-120 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

"We know they're in contention to meet us down the line," Irving said of the vanquished Clips on the TNT broadcast. "So we wanted to make an impression, and we did that."

If any team has a right to think of message-sending ahead of a potential Finals matchup in early February, it might as well be the one with the Nets' extreme star power. You don't form a constellation like this unless you have intentions of going supernova.

The Nets showed out against the Clippers on Tuesday, marrying timely defense (no, seriously!) with incendiary scoring and offensive harmony. In doing so, they broadcasted a signal that the journey they're on is about more than just reaching the Finals.

Brooklyn could be the team to take the entire NBA over the edge it has been inching toward for years.

Though the trend line isn't perfectly straight, offense is on the rise, up from a leaguewide offensive rating of 104.6 a decade ago to a record 110.9 this year. The math (three is more than two) has a lot to do with it, but so does a crop of players raised to shoot, handle and score from high-value areas, regardless of size or position.

To say the Nets brought Irving, James Harden and Kevin Durant together because they sought to blaze a new offense-only trail to a title might be giving them too much credit. The aim, as further evidenced by hiring Steve Nash to be the head coach, might have been simpler: just get stars and make splashes. But Brooklyn's personnel and its extreme reliance on offense makes undeniable sense with the direction the league has been going over the last decade.

Brooklyn's makeup also flies in the face of where the league has been.

Over the past two decades, the 2000-01 Los Angeles Lakers are the only team to win a championship with a defense ranked worse than 11th, according to Ryan Blackburn of Denver Stiffs. The moment the Nets added Harden to a roster that already had a surplus of scoring at the expense of defense and depth, it was clear they were ready to challenge cliche and convention.

Defense wins championships? Yeah, we'll see about that.

Critically, Brooklyn's defense was just good enough against the Clippers.

The Nets started Jeff Green at the 5, enabling a switch-everything scheme. Though the Clippers ran out to an early lead, Brooklyn's tactics paid off. Los Angeles lacks a conventional point guard to get its offense moving when switches stymie the pick-and-roll; Brooklyn coaxed isolation attacks and stagnation from an offense already predisposed to standing around.

Don't be misled. The Clips came into Tuesday's loss with an offensive rating just one-tenth of a point worse than Brooklyn's second-ranked attack. L.A. can score like few other teams. But in addition to effective switching, the Nets got reliably stout one-on-one defense from Harden (especially in the post), active hands from Irving and a few "man, that dude is long" rim contests from Durant.

This approach can work for Brooklyn. If the Nets nudge opponents toward one-on-one basketball, that's a win. Motion, screens, communication—that's where the Nets get into trouble on D. They're better when things are simple, when their capable individual defenders can lock into a head-on challenge.

Summoning the right level of effort doesn't hurt, either.

The Nets' record against quality teams suggests they can reach that level on command.

Offense will carry Brooklyn on most nights, and though we've spent time discussing defense, Tuesday was still one of those.

The Nets' Big Three worked together carving into Los Angeles' late lead, not so much taking turns as seizing opportunities whenever they presented themselves. Irving scored a season-high 39 points and registered the most highlights, but Durant (28 points on 11-of-13 shooting) and Harden (23 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds) were hardly bystanders.

The Nets scrapped on D, and it often felt as though the Clippers could have shown more patience, trusted their advantages and settled the game down. But it's hard to stay cool with the ball when Brooklyn never relents when it has possession. You could sense the Clips feeling the pressure and fighting off urgency. They had to score because the Nets were sure as hell going to when they got the ball back.

It isn't like Brooklyn ran away with this game. Yes, it was up 10 after Durant drilled a patented pull-up trey from the left wing with 1:55 left. But the Clippers cut that advantage to a single point late in the proceedings. That shows how slim the Nets' margin for error is—even with an offense this good.

Defensively, Brooklyn will never be great. It's 25th in defensive rating and 27th since acquiring Harden. The buyout market won't save the Nets. Whomever they find to bolster the defense won't play ahead of Irving, Harden, Durant or Joe Harris in the biggest moments of the games that matter most.

For Brooklyn to reach the destination it's already thinking about, it will do so with mind-melting offense and just enough—just barely enough—on D. If the Nets go all the way in this fashion, it'll be a first.

But there's no denying the league is increasingly tilting toward offense. And there's no denying there's a first time for everything.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Accurate through games played Tuesday, Feb. 2.