TORONTO — The IRS will never tell you it’s OK to skip filing taxes. The guy driving in front of you will be texting when the light changes. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce will face LeBron James in the playoffs.
It’s nice to have some virtual certainties in life.
For the fifth time in seven seasons, Pierce and Garnett will line up opposite James in the postseason. They’re 2-2 against him, beating him and the Cavaliers in 2008 and 2010, losing to him with the Heat in 2011 and 2012. They see him a lot.
“Yeah, it’s seeming like that, eh?” Garnett said “It seems like we’re seeing [Dwyane Wade] and LeBron for the last past seven, eight years. That’s what it is, man, the best is playing the best.”
It is a test the Nets welcome. Pierce called playing James the “ultimate challenge” for a competitor.
“I rank LeBron as one of the greatest players to ever play the game. A tremendous athlete … he’s already passed so many greats that we still talk about,” said Pierce. “When you play against the best, as a competitor, you want those moments. All great competitors in this league, they want to play against the other best and see where they are, see how they measure up throughout history. When you play against the best like LeBron, it brings out the best, I think, in everyone.”
There are some, of course, who would prefer facing a bronze statue over facing James, but those guys don’t have a ring. Pierce does.
“In any sport when you are a great competitor — and I consider myself a great competitor who wants to be in those moments,” Pierce said, providing a laundry list of tough assignments: James, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady. “You want those moments. What can I say? His résumé speaks for itself. Right now he’s the best player in the league. You are always looking for that challenge and he’s the ultimate challenge.”
The Heat swept through the Bobcats, and the Nets outlasted Toronto in seven games to set up the Brooklyn-Miami showdown. The Nets swept the Heat, 4-0, in the regular season, winning three one-point victories and another in double overtime.
“That goes out the window with the regular season. What we did during the regular season is in the regular season. This is postseason,” Garnett said. “They’ve been sitting there waiting. So let’s get it on.”
The regular-season sweep was viewed as so many grains of salt by most in the Nets locker room Sunday.
“It gives us some confidence but at the same time, it’s a whole different ballgame,” Andray Blatche said. “We’ve got to go in there and not think about that.”
But the 4-0 means something. It gave the Nets the confidence they can win and hang with the two-time defending champs.
“We know we can beat them, but it’s going to be a lot different than the regular season,” Joe Johnson said.
“I know the playoffs are different than the regular season, but I like the group we have,” Alan Anderson said.
“We have confidence. We’d have it even if we went 0-4 against them,” Marcus Thornton said.
And this could be the start of something big: Brooklyn-Miami.
“It’s not a rivalry with Brooklyn yet. You can’t create rivalries in the regular season. They build in the playoffs,” Pierce said. “Miami is the favorite this year, they’ve won two championships. We’re still trying to earn our respect as a team, as a franchise, the city of Brooklyn.”