Jacque Vaughn caught to the plan, and the Nets are reaping the advantages.
Immediately after Kevin Durant went down with an MCL sprain on Jan. 8, Vaughn stated the group would wish to play with extra tempo and shoot extra threes.
Through the primary 10 video games of Durant’s absence, the recipe has been successful: The Nets have gone 4-6 with out Durant, with a number of encouraging losses — although the group will say they don’t seem to be within the enterprise of ethical victories.
“I think we’ve been able to somewhat form a recipe for how we want to play. I think you see the three ball, so that’s a part of who we are. So being able to shoot 40 threes again, that seems like a pretty good clip for us,” Vaughn stated after Monday’s victory towards the Los Angeles Lakers. “With Kevin, our tempo, we’re in all probability 14th within the league. Right now, we’re in all probability eighth or seventh with out. So with the ability to play sooner so we will get photographs up earlier within the shot clock.
“And then it’s a collective unit on the opposite end of the floor. It won’t look pretty all the time. We’ve used zone before, we’ve played small before, we’ve played big before. So on that end of the floor, we’ll figure it out. We’ve hovered around top 10 in the league, if we can stay in that realm, we’ll be OK. But the fouling, and the free throws, and the rebounding piece, we need to take care of.”
During their Durant-less stretch, the Nets have overwhelmed the Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors, the Knicks and Lakers. They misplaced to a fully-loaded Philadelphia 76ers group by solely 4 factors and the league-best Boston Celtics by 11.
The disappointing losses got here towards groups thought-about lesser opponents. The Nets misplaced to the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder. They additionally misplaced to a Phoenix Suns group with out each star guards Chris Paul and Devin Booker.
“We just take it game to game. To be honest with you, I’m not really paying attention to the wins and losses, per se,” stated star guard Kyrie Irving, who’s averaging 31.3 factors per sport with Durant out of the rotation. “The goal remains to be the identical each day. We put together to win basketball video games, however we glance again on the classes that we’ve discovered, whether or not we had been profitable at profitable or we failed that evening by possessions. We’ve simply bought to do the little issues that make us look very excellent each offensively and defensively.
“When we’re out of position, when we’re not aggressive enough, the game could go either way. So definitely those six losses I look at is as they could have gone either way if we would have done the little things, but that’s a choice. So hopefully going forward we put our best foot in front of ourselves and just give ourselves a chance to win every single night.”
Irving credited the group’s second unit for stepping up throughout this stretch. The Nets bench scored 66 factors within the victory over the Lakers with each Cam Thomas and Patty Mills scoring 21 factors apiece and reserve massive man Day’Ron Sharpe hauling in 14 rebounds.
“I just think our group in itself, we’ve gotten past the phase of being uncomfortable in our roles and asking a bunch of questions night to night [about] what it’s gonna look like,” Irving stated. “So as soon as we bought previous that part, I felt like we had been enjoying some good stable basketball. Just accepting actuality for what it’s: Okay’s not within the lineup, T.J. [Warren] not within the lineup, guys are out and in, so it’s gonna go away alternative for guys which are working extraordinarily laborious.
“It’s nothing but joy in my eyes when I see them get rewarded for the hard work they put in. It makes my job a lot easier, and I want to continue to lead by example by putting the work in, too. So when they score 66 points off the bench, that means I don’t have to have a fourth quarter where I’m putting my head down or doing things to keep us in the game.”
The Nets are anticipated to provide an replace on Durant — who stated in a perfect state of affairs, he would return a couple of video games earlier than the All-Star break — sooner or later within the subsequent week.
The group is studying to play with out him, which might solely be a superb factor for when he returns to the lineup.
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com