Nets are reminder nothing is a sure thing

The Nets’ shaky health cost them a berth in the Eastern Conference finals. There’s little question about that. The Bucks showed heart and guts and resilience, they got big games when they needed them from Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo. They held serve all three games at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum; the Nets couldn’t quite stay invincible at Barclays Center.

All true. All of it. And it doesn’t exactly take a Bob Beamon-esque leap of faith to say that a healthy Kyrie Irving and a healthy James Harden flanking a healthy Kevin Durant would’ve figured out a way to win, at best, one of the games in Wisconsin and, at least, a decisive Game 7 in Brooklyn. But did the injuries cost the Nets their first NBA championship, which was what so much of the post-Game 7 buzz was about? Steve Nash was asked if he could possibly imagine the ride of these 2020-21 Nets ending short of raising the Larry O’Brien Trophy and etching their names into the NBA history books.