This series of Playoffs between the Bucks and the Nets during the 2020-21 season will be remembered for a long time. Like a happy memory for Daims fans, probably like a trauma for Brooklyn fans. Jrue Holiday recalled it at the microphone of the War, Adrian Wojnarowski’s podcast. An interview that reveals all the difficulty that the player had when it was necessary to defend a certain Kevin Durant.
In an NBA career, there are moments that mark. A title or a big match of course in the positive, but also other less great moments. There are also players that we meet, because of their level of play. Let’s stop on this floor to open Jrue Holiday’s file. Luxury lieutenant of this dear Giannis Antetokounmpo, the leader remembered – during a Woj Pod of which he was the guest – of this incredible series once morest the Nets two years ago.
A duel in seven games won by his team, that should remind you of good times, right? Not necessarily, as Jrue has opened up regarding the form of “trauma” inflicted by Nets point guard Kevin Durant. Why “trauma”? Because the Brooklyn player was simply monstrous in all seven games. M’sieur Vacances recognizes that he has never been put to the test so much in his career.
“[Défendre Kevin Durant] robbed me of years of life expectancy. Every time we go to the Barclays Center, it feels like post-traumatic stress for me. Every time we go there is of course excitement, but also nervousness. I’m not the nervous kind of guy when I play, I’ve been playing basketball my whole life…but this series…personally it got to me so much” – Jrue Holiday
Wow, then. Hearing that from the mouth of an experienced NBA leader whose level is absolutely no longer to be proven is quite impressive. At the same time, stuffing Kevin for seven games hasn’t been easy. The Nets star shot 35.4 points, 10.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists on 49.7 percent shooting once morest the eventual champions. Add to all this a final 48-point game and one point too many for a potential qualification in the Eastern Conference Finals. No wonder with all this context that the Bucks player was shocked by the performance of the opposing best client. He is full of praise for him.
“The way KD carried his team… It didn’t give me nightmares because we won, but I still visualize it very often. This series… it was one of the biggest I’ve been in personally, but going all the way to game 7, the guys putting in the big shots… Kyrie getting injured, Harden coming back… Everything was like in a movie. It took a lot from us emotionally and physically. I’m sure it helped us in the NBA Finals followingwards” – Jrue Holiday
We can only give the point to Jrue concerning the quasi-Hollywood scenario of this confrontation. And also the one for the fact that this series has been a great help for the Bucks when it comes to battling with the Suns for the NBA title. Such prolonged intensity over so many games would no doubt have left its mark in Wisconsin if the Bucks had been eliminated. In any case, she left some in Brooklyn.
To broaden the objective a little, these statements are very interesting to capture, on our scale, all the intensity and the pressure supported by the players during the NBA Playoffs. When the players explain that this part of the year is totally different from the regular season, it’s not lol and Jrue’s words are further proof of this.
Jrue Holiday, the man who sees Kevin Durant help himself to his fridge in the morning, asking him why there are no more PQs, all because of a series of zinzins signed KD. A brief immersion in the series between Bucks and Nets to understand the hardness of this sport but also the impact that the very best strikers on the basketball planet have, it’s limit to make us freak out even behind our TVs.
Sources: Statmuse, Woj Pod, ESPN
