NBA Opening Night: New Look Brooklyn Nets dominate the Golden State Warriors.
By: Marcus M.
Tags: Basketball, NBA, New Era, Season Preview, Analysis

NBA Opening Night: New Look Brooklyn Nets dominate the Golden State Warriors.

The much anticipated new-look Brooklyn Nets demolished the Golden State Warriors for the first game of the 2020–2021 season. Flashback this time last year, I couldn’t wait to see Kevin Durant back on the floor with his new teammates and fellow all-star NBA champion Kyrie Irving. Watching KD on the bench last year in street clothes you only hoped he would come back healthy ready to play. An achilles injury is life altering as far as how your body feels and how you walk in your everyday life. Let alone, being a world-class athlete. But Kevin Durant came back better than ever tonight looking like the smoothest player and scorer to ever play basketball. I always felt Kyrie and Kevin would bring that ABA flare style of basketball back to the NBA scene. Tonight, they sure did. Poetry in motion. It was against an injury depleted Warriors, a former powerhouse (and Kevin Durant’s former team in which he won his only championships with) who still have championship aspirations. But they proved no match against Brooklyn, who seemed to have stole the Golden State Warriors identity in fast pace high offense style of play. You can expect this the rest of the season with former Suns Steve Nash, Mike Dantoni and Amare Stoudemire coaching on their bench. They were the originators of the 7-second offense. Except it seems so much more dangerous with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in their primes playing together, running this style & system.

What a change in a time of our lives. It seemed like yesterday, (but it was over 2-3 years ago) when Brooklyn seemed like a team in the shadows, who left all their history and culture in New Jersey where the team is originally from. Then there was the Golden State Warriors who won an NBA record 73 games and seemed like they would be the front runners in the NBA for the next decade. Now this team also relocated out of Oakland into San Francisco and their good fortune seemed to leave as well with Kevin Durant now in Brooklyn, and Klay Thompson, there lock down defender lights out shooting guard who will be out for the season with a torn achilles of his own.

This just proves (with everything else that has happened this year 2020) that good thing won’t last forever, and new things will bring a different journey to your life. I should have understood this whole-heartedly when my team the Miami Heat lost Lebron back to Cleveland and all of a sudden the tides had shifted back to the field and out of Miami. But this resonates with me because it just seems the NBA is on a different level across the board. When Lebron teamed up with Kyrie in Cleveland there was only one team competing with that talent. It was Golden State. Now with Kevin Durant teaming up with Kyrie in Brooklyn, there are still so many teams competing with who will make it to the NBA finals. The overall gameplay has finally rose to the heights of Lebron and KD, along with Giannis Antetokounmpo leading the way.

All in all, the breath of fresh air in anticipation of this NBA season was with steel lungs, COVID-free and a ventilation mask instead of a face mask. Running free. Fingers-crossed, hopefully the rest of the NBA season will be smooth sailings.