Neither the Brooklyn Nets nor the Toronto Raptors were looking for much when they trotted into the Barclays Center tonight.
With everyone else having reserved their seats by now, both teams knew the NBA playoff bus would soon be taking off without them. It may have felt like one at times given the back-and-forth nature, but tonight’s game was no truly competitive contest in terms of what an NBA team’s goal should be. It was merely a basketball game that just so happened to be played at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush.
It being fan appreciation night and the home finale did give the game some appeal. But unfortunately, much of was coated in sad irony.
With it being Brooklyn’s last game of the season, in part due to a multitude of failures from all corners of the organization, every T-shirt, tribute, and salute to the Brooklyn faithful felt paradoxical. It was a toast to a crowd that almost all season has had nothing but drinks thrown in its face.
The Nets themselves played on though, and played hard, as they have since their official elimination one week ago to date. Thanks to some fiery sequences down the stretch from Nic Claxton, Noah Clowney, and Dennis Schröder, they carved their way to a gritty victory that if it were to happen at any other point in the year would surely have more stock in it.
