The Nets’ latest funk isn’t only one factor.
It’s the whole lot.
“You identify it,” coach Steve Nash admitted, as his struggling workforce ready to host the Spurs on Sunday. “We’ve actually struggled since getting back from all of the COVID interruptions. We had been having an excellent yr. We really performed nicely via the COVID state of affairs. Since we’ve gotten everybody again roughly we simply haven’t had the arrogance, the spirit, the enjoyment.
“And you can see it: Too many lapses and never sufficient tempo and enthusiasm. We’ve bought to seek out that. We’ve bought to get that again after this interruption, and be a bunch that goes on the market and is tough to play in opposition to.”
The Nets have been all too simple to play in opposition to these days, placing up little resistance. Protection, rebounding, physicality, spacing, it’s all taken successful.
“It feels prefer it’s the whole lot, truthfully,” James Harden mentioned. “We will’t get stops constantly. Offensively, it’s a little bit tough, our spacing isn’t nice most possessions. It’s a little bit of the whole lot, and it feels prefer it’s all piling on one another.”
The Nets have dropped 4 of their final 5 video games, together with a 121-109 loss to the Bucks on Friday evening.
“I imply, there’s a mess of [issues],” Kevin Durant mentioned. “Offensive rebounds, despite the fact that I don’t assume that damage us [Friday], that’s damage us over this little stretch, that’s been hurting us. Not staying in entrance of the ball, like giving up straight line drives, and groups come right here flattening 3s.”
The Nets have allowed a minimum of 10 3-pointers and 110 factors in all 5 of these video games. They've didn't run foes off the road. Whereas they'd overcome being shorthanded all season by remaking themselves as a defense-minded workforce, their “care stage” has taken a dip ever since their roster has gotten nearer to complete these days.
“I’d be a hell of a coach if I knew [why],” Nash mentioned. “We’ve bought to get to work. We’ve bought to seek out the resolve, discovering the on a regular basis are available and do the correct issues, put money into the group and attempt to decide your teammates up. And if we might have that character the place we’ll do the whole lot we are able to individually and in addition decide our teammates up, we’ll get again to taking part in good basketball.”
The Nets had performed good, first-place basketball all through the vacations.
They had been perched atop the Jap Convention with a 23-9 report on Dec. 29, a recreation forward of the Bulls and two away from the Bucks. They'd gotten there by guarding, with a defensive score that was fifth-best within the NBA (106.4).
However since then? Their defensive score of 119.2 is third-worst within the league. And so they have fallen 2 ½ video games behind the Bulls and right into a tie with the Bucks.
“Our physicality is the beginning of it. Being up into the ball, be sure our man feels us, that’s the start proper there. That’s the place it begins,” Harden mentioned. “After which as a possession, because the shot clock will get decrease and decrease, we’ve bought a greater likelihood of locking in on the ball, whether or not it’s pick-and-roll or iso, and that offers a greater place at rebounding the basketball.”
A poor rebounding workforce even at their greatest, the Nets relied on the league’s second-best field-goal protection (42.7 p.c) earlier than hitting their slide. They've been simply twentieth because the skid started.
“There’s a number of widespread threads,” Nash mentioned. “We’re not into the ball. We’re not combative sufficient to start out video games. We’re not clear sufficient with our communication on the stage of the ball. There’s not sufficient of a presence. We will do higher in transition as nicely getting organized. It’s elementary stuff that’s taken a dip since all of us bought again collectively. We will see it clearly. We now have to work at it now. We now have to take it to coronary heart and we've to rebuild.
“We’ve simply bought to proceed to get again to the place we had been being much more bodily, much more decisive in actions and get that swagger again defensively.”
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