The crowd was late and slightly subdued considering the many things that took place in Toronto to begin the series. The Toronto Sun referred to the Brooklyn Nets older players as “dinosaurs”, Drake took a shot a Jay Z saying he’s probably somewhere eating “fondue plate” since he wasn’t in attendance and most notably the Raptors GM Masai Ujiri shouted “f*ck Brooklyn” to the rallying Toronto crowd. Now the Nets were on their turf but the grit and grind Brooklyn is known for took some time to come around.
It was a dunk from Paul Pierce that got everybody on their feet and Kevin Garnett fighting for possession and emphatically and proudly grabbing at the Brooklyn on his jersey that got the Barclays Center louder than I’d ever heard it before. The crowd alternated between chants of “Brooooklyn” and “USA” as the Nets built their lead, going up by as much as 15 but it wouldn’t hold.
The Raptors fought their way back, somewhat due to the folly of the Nets. In the end the Nets pulled off the 102-98 win, going up 2-1 in the series. Although everyone was happy about securing the win, veteran Paul Pierce acknowledged that the battle had just begun and the many mistakes they made can’t continue going forward.
“Even though we won the game you wanna do a better job because as the rounds go, as the games go on, teams figure out what you’re trying to do, teams get better and if you get to the next round you can’t afford no mistakes. So it’s best we take care of it now”, Pierce warned.
“By no means should everybody be satisfied with the way we won because we know we’re a better team, we know we can play better.”
– Shaina Auxilly (@Shay_Marie)
