Los Angeles (AFP)

The Brooklyn Nets, carried by their star duo Kevin Durant / Kyrie Irving finally operational and efficient, 48 points between them, easily beat (125-99) Golden State where only Stephen Curry floated, Tuesday at the opening of the NBA season .

Absent from the courts for a year and a half, after breaking an Achilles tendon in the 2019 Finals game lost with Golden State against Toronto, Durant made his comeback in an official meeting, after good arrangements displayed in the preseason.

Evidenced by his 22 points (5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 interceptions), without forcing in 25 minutes, against his former team of the Warriors, with whom he gleaned two league titles in 2017 and 2018, then appearing as the best player of the world.

The winger started off on hats, returning his first three attempts.

A shoot from behind the arc first, a dunk after a lightning first step, then a mid-distance shoot while in control despite a foul that turned the action to three points.

All the panoply of "KD" found in short, as if nothing had happened.

"It feels good. I didn't approach this game differently. I had the same energy for the preseason. But it's good to win," he commented afterwards.

Durant was not alone in having fun against a permeable defense of the Warriors, as Irving was the team's leading scorer with 26 points (10/16, 4 rebounds, 4 assists).

The leader stood out as soon as he arrived at the Barclay Center with a poncho bearing the message "Of course you can trust the government, just ask a Native American," whose mother was half Sioux.

The match was quickly folded, the Frenchman of Brooklyn, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot pecked 7 minutes, time to score 5 points.

These successful beginnings for these ambitious Nets, are also for Steve Nash, who begins a new coaching career after having been one of the best leaders in history, named MVP of the league in 2005 and 2006.

Opposite, in the absence of Draymond Green, suffering from a foot, and Klay Thompson for the season, victim of a ruptured Achilles tendon, Curry (20 pts, 10 assists), for his 700th match in the NBA, was too alone to carry partners who were too tender, despite the notable performance of James Wiseman (17 pts, 6 rebounds), their rookie drafted in 2nd position.

In the wake of this first game of the 2020/2021 fiscal year, the Los Angeles duel between the defending champions Lakers and the Clippers took place.

© 2020 AFP