Death, taxes and blowout losses. Welcome to the brand new actuality for the new-look Nets within the second half of the 2022-23 NBA season.
The Nets fell to a 34-28 document with Wednesday’s 142-118 loss to the New York Knicks. They now have a 2-6 document in video games that adopted the Feb. 9 NBA commerce deadline and have misplaced 4 video games in a row — with one other anticipated loss looming within the defending convention champion Boston Celtics, ready for the Nets on Friday.
More regarding than the variety of losses, nevertheless, is the character of defeat in Brooklyn.
The Nets profile as an above common defensive group, however there’s a clear drop off from the names on paper to the product on the ground.
That’s as a result of for all of the size, athleticism and defensive prowess the Nets gained within the trades that despatched Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving out West, they haven’t been in a position to generate sufficient stops.
The proof is within the pudding: The Nets have given up 30 or extra factors in 1 / 4 in 12 of the 16 quarters they’ve performed since popping out of the All-Star break. The Nets additionally allowed the Knicks to attain 47 and 34 factors within the opening two quarters of Wednesday’s blowout loss at Madison Square Garden. They have been blown out in 4 of their final six video games and got here again from down 18 to lose on a Trae Young buzzer beater in Atlanta on Sunday.
There’s much more information suggesting the Nets are worse defensively than meets the attention: Brooklyn entered Wednesday evening giving up 122 factors per 100 possessions, good for the NBA’s third-worst defensive score behind solely the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets, who personal the NBA’s worst document.
On Tuesday, they couldn’t management Giannis Antetokounmpo, an comprehensible shortcoming given his standing as probably the greatest gamers in basketball. The following evening, nevertheless, the Nets gave up 142 factors in opposition to the Knicks. By the time the numbers settle, the Nets may personal the worst defensive score in all of basketball because the commerce deadline.
Compounding issues for a Nets group struggling to string collectively stops is the stress to retain playoff standing — together with a powerful remaining schedule.
The Nets have fallen behind the Knicks to the Eastern Conference’s sixth seed. If they fall anyplace from seventh to tenth, they must play in a sudden-death Play-In Tournament to earn their playoff seeding.
That’s provided that the Nets don’t fall to eleventh, and so they manner they’ve acquitted themselves out of the All-Star break, an prolonged dropping streak is on the desk.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com