MIAMI – When Kevin Garnett agreed to be traded from Boston to Brooklyn last summer, he knew things would be different. He knew he would no longer be a focal point of the team’s offense, that he would be phased into the background of the team’s thinking at that end of the floor.
Garnett accepted that concept publicly when he was introduced alongside Paul Pierce at a press conference at Barclays Center last July, and has been adamant about it ever since. It didn’t change Thursday, when after going scoreless in the Nets’ Eastern Conference Semifinal Game 1 loss to the Heat for the first time in 139 career playoff games, he reiterated he doesn’t need to be a factor offensively anymore.
“Listen, coming here I knew that I was going to have to, I knew my scoring was going to be subjective,” Garnett said before the Nets began their Thursday morning shootaround ahead of Game 2. “I knew I was giving up things coming here. I understand that. I’m not going to be a distraction or complaining about things that I kind of anticipated.
“Whatever [Nets coach Jason Kidd] needs me to be on this team, I’ve tried to be and will continue try to be. I’m not going to come off and be a distraction at this point. I understand my job and go out there and do it to the best of my ability. If I have a chance to be aggressive, I’ll take those chances. If not, do what I can, do the things that I know I can.”
Now in his 19th season in the NBA and 14th postseason, Garnett is far closer to the end of his playing days than the beginning. After more than 1,100 games and upwards of 40,000 combined regular-season and playoff minutes, his legendary pride hasn’t been dampened one bit.
That’s why, early in the season, Garnett initially chafed at Kidd’s desires to limit the aging icon to about 20 minutes a game and to sit him in half of each of the team’s 20 back-to-back sets, attempting to keep Garnett healthy and save his energy for the postseason.
Though Garnett did spend 19 games in March and April sidelined with back spasms, the plan largely worked, as he was ready to go when the playoffs began – and was able to deliver arguably his two best games of the season in Games 6 and 7 of the first-round series with Toronto to help Brooklyn advance.
“He’s the same person every day, man,” Joe Johnson said. “Regardless of how many points he scored or rebounds he’s grabbed, that’s one thing that I love about him. He comes in here, he comes to work hard each and every day, and he lets none of that affect him.”
The performances by Garnett (no points and four rebounds) and Pierce (eight points) in the Nets’ Game 1 loss were far below their usual playoff norms, and led to renewed questions about whether or not they would be able to summon the performances necessary to push the Heat to the brink one more time in this, their latest battle with LeBron James.
Just don’t tell that to the Heat, who expected to see much better performances from both of their longtime foes in Game 2.
“I don’t want our guys to get ‘Rope-A-Doped’ into that theory,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They didn’t play their guys in the fourth quarter. They know, and we know, what those guys are capable of.
“We’ve been in enough battles with a lot of their guys, not just Pierce and Garnett. But series can change just like that, and we haven’t done what we’re supposed to yet.”