For the shorthanded Nets, there could be a recipe to win shorthanded towards 25 of the NBA’s different 29 groups.
It’s expertise, nevertheless, that will get a staff over the hump towards these professional championship contenders.
The Nets believed they discovered one thing via the 10-game stretch Kevin Durant had been sidelined with an MCL sprain — that taking part in with tempo, jacking up threes and getting artistic on protection might compensate for the superstar-power Durant brings the second he steps onto the ground.
That can work towards quite a lot of groups.
The Boston Celtics aren’t one among them.
With no Durant, no Ben Simmons (left knee soreness) and no T.J. Warren (left shin contusion), the Nets received pummeled, 139-96, by the identical Celtics staff that swept them out of the primary spherical of final 12 months’s Eastern Conference playoffs. The Nets are actually 0-3 towards the Celtics this season and have misplaced their final 10 video games to Boston, together with the playoff collection. Their subsequent sport comes March 3 once more at Boston’s TD Garden.
“We talked about making more threes and shooting more threes than them. Neither of those things happened,” Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn stated postgame. “They made some powerful photographs and so they received going early, and that was the distinction within the sport.
“We’ve answered challenges down five, 15, 16, it doesn’t matters. I’ll be honest, this is part of the NBA sometimes,” he continued. “This is a night where they hit first, they hit hard, and it hurt. And we weren’t able to get off the mat like we needed to and respond like we have in the past. So you take this one on the chin and you keep moving. Learn from it.”
It was a humbling loss for a staff that went 4-6 via the primary 10 video games with out their captain, with a few of these losses a possession or two away from a special end result.
“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,” Vaughn stated after defeating a Lakers staff with out LeBron James and Anthony Davis. “So being able to shoot 40 threes again, that seems like a pretty good clip for us. With Kevin, our pace, we’re probably 14th in the league. Right now, we’re probably eighth or seventh without. So being able to play faster so we can get shots up earlier in the shot clock.”
The end result was by no means doubtful on Wednesday. Celtics All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown hit seven threes apiece. The All-Star duo mixed for 57 factors via a barrage of treys within the opening interval.
“We were down 30 at the end of the first quarter, so everything was going their way,” stated sharpshooter Seth Curry. “That’s a good team and we’re obviously undermanned, so you’ve gotta play perfect basketball to get a win here.”
Kyrie Irving scored a team-high 20 factors and performed 31 of a doable 36 minutes via the primary three quarters. Sharpshooter Joe Harris shot 4-of-7 from downtown and second-year guard Cam Thomas scored 19 factors off the bench.
Royce O’Neale shot one-of-seven from downtown, Curry struggled taking pictures one-of-five from deep, and Irving missed six of his seven makes an attempt from behind the arc. His development of struggling from the sphere in entrance of the Celtics followers he used to play for continued on Wednesday.
The Nets shot simply 9-of-39 from downtown and 36-of-88 from the sphere as a staff.
They additionally received crushed on the glass, 57-32. Nic Claxton mustered 9 factors and 6 rebounds, and reserve heart Day’Ron Sharpe tallied 9 factors and 7 rebounds.
Vaughn emptied the bench on the backside of the third quarter.
The Nets have a lighter problem towards the Washington Wizards on Saturday, however with the standing for each Simmons and Warren unknown, the trio of Bradley Beal, Kyle Kuzma and Kristaps Porzingis may very well be powerful to deal with.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com