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The entire Nets season has been a waiting game. Wondering when Kyrie Irving could play – then wondering when he could play all the time. Wondering when Kevin Durant would return from his knee injury. When the team could and would mesh. When Ben Simmons would debut (still waiting…)

In a rarity, Nets fans now can look at the calendar and wonder not about a vague future date or about a clip from practice – is that Simmons running? – but about a tip-off. Game 2 isn’t until Wednesday? Sigh.

After the Nets made a mockery of the regular season, the start of their postseason was marvelous if disappointing, a chaotic mess of a 115-114 loss in Boston on Sunday that met and exceeded expectations for an unusually powerful first-round matchup. This is what the team and its fans have anticipated since October. If it lacked a successful result, it tried to compensate in excitement.