Jacque Vaughn couldn’t discover the phrases.
His Nets had simply clinched the Eastern Conference’s sixth and closing playoff seed with a 101-84 victory over the Orlando Magic on Friday, and after a protracted speech to his crew, an emotional Vaughn took the rostrum to area questions.
“I really do …,” the Nets coach stated earlier than taking a second to compose himself, “I really do enjoy coaching this team.”
That was the second each he and a Nets franchise below unending stress and scrutiny through the years lastly set free a sigh of aid.
The job is full, even when its description modified alongside the way in which.
For the fifth time in as a few years, and for the eighth time within the 11 seasons since relocating to Brooklyn, the Nets have punched their ticket to the NBA playoffs.
Only this time, they did it with the percentages stacked in opposition to them. This time, to qualify for the playoffs, the Nets needed to construct a brand-new basis on the drop of a dime — with an identification reverse of the one the group had assumed in years prior.
Adaptability isn’t an attribute the Nets merely admire of their gamers. The head coach, for instance, must be equal elements in-game tactician, off-court public relations specialist, in addition to a conductor between totally different elements of the group.
Vaughn wasn’t within the head-coaching seat at the beginning of the season, but seven video games in, he changed Steve Nash. Days later, Kyrie Irving was suspended for posting hyperlinks to anti-semitic materials on his social media feeds. And on the high of the brand new yr, Kevin Durant performed his final sport as a Brooklyn Net after spraining his MCL in a Jan. 8 matchup in opposition to the Miami Heat.
A month later, Irving blindsided the group with a commerce request. Durant’s departure adopted, and in got here a gaggle gamers with contemporary, younger vitality.
Vaughn by no means wavered: He stored his group centered on the duty in entrance of them — successful that evening’s sport with no regard for what the longer term holds.
Make no mistake: This playoff look is sweeter. It hits totally different when the playoff hopes aren’t tied to a celebrity’s availability.
“You look at teams seven, eight, nine, ten, they have an All-Star or multiple All-Stars on their team,” Vaughn stated. “And this sixth seed, the Brooklyn Nets, we did it in a very competitive and collective way as a group, as a team. And hopefully the borough of Brooklyn is proud to have this group represent them in the playoffs.”
* * *
Spencer Dinwiddie and Joe Harris are the one holdovers from the 2018-19 Nets crew that snapped Brooklyn’s prior three-year playoff drought.
That Nets crew was so younger and inexperienced, it made the playoffs by advantage of not figuring out any higher.
“We were more excited,” Dinwiddie recalled. “I think this team is more veteran. We have guys who are more experienced.”
This time, nonetheless, the playoff berth was a bit extra calculated.
When Dinwiddie arrived alongside Dorian Finney-Smith, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson as a part of the trades that despatched Durant and Irving out West, the purpose was to make the playoffs outright because the sixth seed, to not should qualify for the postseason within the sudden-death play-in event.
Yet with every week’s value of video games left on the docket, and the race to the playoffs nonetheless hotly contested given the No. 7 Miami Heat’s one-game hole, Dinwiddie stated the crew transitioned from “aspiring” to complete sixth to that being the expectation.
“As we got down to the last four or five games, especially beating the Heat and the Hawks, it became like now we can handle business,” he continued. “We put ourselves in position. Let’s be grownups about it.”
The Nets are all grown-up, and with that maturity comes independence. It’s a purpose why they will take a deep breath and prepare for his or her playoff push. It’s a purpose why whereas the sixth seed is one thing to rejoice, the crew is aware of the work lies forward.
For years the Nets lived and died by Durant or Irving’s star energy and availability, that their particular person greatness wouldn’t solely enhance the gamers round them but in addition masks any and all shortcomings.
These Nets know nobody is coming to avoid wasting them. All these Nets have is themselves.
“I’m not going to lie to you, reputation does matter. I’ve spoken about this a lot: That last six-minute stretch of games on the margin, bang-bang calls, things like that we’re not going to get them,” Dinwiddie stated. “But at the same time reputations are typically made in the playoffs right? So you know if Mikal keeps playing at the level he is he’ll be considered a star at the end of this thing especially if we can advance or do anything special. I think we have a guy who has the ability to play at that level.”
“And you know you’ve got one damn good looking point guard, too,” he completed.
* * *
In the top, it wasn’t a Nets win that sealed their playoff place.
The seventh-seeded Heat wanted to win their Friday matchup in opposition to the Washington Wizards and depend on a Nets loss to Orlando to pressure a season finale that might have determined sole possession of the East’s sixth seed.
Dinwiddie appeared up on the Jumbotron halfway by means of the fourth quarter to see the Heat trailing the Wizards by double digits.
“Listen bruh, I knew the score of the Heat game, it was right there,” he stated. “I don’t know when you seen once they received up about 15, 17 with three minutes to go, my degree of depth dropped somewhat bit.
“That’s why JV was mad at me. I was like, ‘Bruh, smile dude. You’re a nice guy.”
For Vaughn, nonetheless, there isn’t a lot to smile about — even when his crew clinched a playoff spot and he secured a contract extension by means of the 2026-27 season.
His crew is way from a completed product. His crew additionally doesn’t wish to relive final season’s nightmare of getting swept off the Barclays Center flooring in an unceremonious finish to playoffs.
The Nets have a lot to wash up earlier than Game 1 in opposition to the 76ers. Case in level: They received off to a sluggish begin in opposition to a Magic crew with out 4 key gamers, constructed a lead that ballooned to 24, then watched it evaporate down to only 10 within the fourth quarter earlier than closing it out with a 17-point victory.
Harris and Bridges, for instance, had been so involved with how the crew had fared that they couldn’t take note of the rating of the Heat sport.
“I was just hoping we would play better, honestly,” Harris stated.
Vaughn continues to be on the lookout for consistency from his crew. It’s what he reiterated to his crew when the Magic went on a run late on Friday.
“I challenged them to play four quarters. That’s something that we really haven’t done consistently, is put four quarters together,” he stated. “So refocus, challenge, make sure that we were present, kept saying that to that group. Don’t look ahead. Don’t look towards tomorrow. Just be present and we ended up getting some stops.”
There will probably be time to work out some kinks subsequent week. The Nets could have further apply time — a luxurious afforded to groups that make the playoffs outright and don’t fall into the play-in event.
Last season, the Nets succumbed to their situations and fell from first within the East to seventh. They needed to earn their playoff spot by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers in a sudden-death showdown.
This crew, with far much less star energy, has already began on a greater foot. They have earned a second to take a breath — however a problem lies forward with a championship-contending Sixers crew lurking within the first spherical.
“It was definitely tough for a while, but finally clicking and finally figuring out what we can do out there was dope man,” stated Bridges. “Just happy to be in this position. You know, be happy about it, but get ready to play.”
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com