As Nets, Bucks play decisive final game of series, a reassessment in New Jersey re Nets fandom

NY Daily News June 18

As the Brooklyn Nets prepare to play the Milwaukee Bucks in the deciding seventh game of their second-round playoff series, as The Ringer's Dan Devine wrote, "The Biggest Showdown of the NBA Playoffs Is Set":

Two days after [the Nets' Kevin] Durant played the game of his life to push Milwaukee to the brink of elimination, Khris Middleton played the game of his to fuel a 104-89 win and make sure the Bucks had some company on the razor’s edge. 

Now, with Kyrie Irving out and James Harden only at partial capacity, there's a showdown, and the winner has a good shot at going all the way.

NY Post June 18

Devine's conclusion:

If the Nets are in a bind and need to short-circuit Milwaukee’s offense, might Nash take a page out of Nate McMillan’s book in the East’s other second-round series and try intentionally fouling Giannis (just 45.7 percent from the stripe in this series, but 6-for-10 on Thursday)? And, perhaps most importantly: Can Milwaukee’s Big Three, which scored as many points as the entire Nets team did in Game 6, press its collective talent advantage on the road in an elimination game? Or will Brooklyn’s ace trump three of a kind? The answers could determine who advances to the conference finals—and, with championship windows closing rapidly and seats forever getting hotter—perhaps a lot more, too.

A reassessment in New Jersey?

NY Daily News June 19

Meanwhile, Star-Ledger columnist Steve Politi, after visiting the shuttered uty still standing arena where the New Jersey Nets used to play, wrote yesterday, It’s okay, New Jersey. You can root for the Nets again, suggesting they might win a championship

Brooklyn will see the kind of magical, wild, unforgettable basketball game that we used to have in the old barn standing in front of me now.

Jealous?

Eh, put it this way: It was easier to shrug off the Nets’ decision to move nine years ago when they were a basement-dwelling laughingstock making desperate moves to pry any sliver of attention from their more popular NBA neighbors.

They traded all those draft picks for WHO? Haha. They’re your problem now, Brooklyn!

Now the Nets are like an ex-girlfriend who ends up becoming a Fortune 500 CEO. They are entertaining. They are compelling. Most of all, they are freaking good.

NY Post June 19

One former season ticket holder, Mike Kozlowski, has reversed his pledge not to watch the team and concludes--as does the columnist--“It’s probably time to let it go.”

Politi writes:

We never loved them, not like other markets do with their NBA teams. I’m not sure they’ve even reached that level of affection in Brooklyn, where the Knicks are still king. But that sure could change in a hurry if Game 7 lives up to its potential.