PHILADELPHIA — Not like this.
The Nets weren’t speculated to lose this sport. Especially not like this.
Not towards a 76ers staff with Joel Embiid, James Harden and Tyrese Maxey every out on account of foot accidents. Not in Ben Simmons’ first official sport again on the Wells Fargo Center for the reason that blockbuster commerce that despatched Harden to Philly.
Not with Kyrie Irving again from an eight-game suspension, or with Joe Harris and Seth Curry lastly wholesome.
Tuesday night time was speculated to be a gimme. In actuality, it was something however.
What transpired in entrance of a sellout crowd booing Simmons each time he touched the ball encapsulated each shortcoming the Nets should overcome in the event that they nonetheless imagine they are often the final staff standing on the finish of the season.
For starters, neglect the personnel, the X’s and O’s and the storyline of the day. This Nets staff has to care. If they don’t, there’s no level on this charade.
The Nets clearly didn’t give sufficient you-know-whats on Tuesday.
They moved at walkthrough pace on each ends of the ground, whereas a short-handed and thus extra hungry and — as Durant described: “free” enjoying — Sixers roster lapped them on each ends of the ground.
Head coach Jacque Vaughn had tears in his eyes after his staff’s newest poor efficiency.
“Overall, [it was our] approach. It boils down to that,” Vaughn stated when requested the place issues went left. “Just overall as a group how serious, how focused, how dedicated were we on every possession? Overall, just not what we needed. That’s the great thing about basketball, you pay for it if you don’t bring it.”
It could be one factor if this was a one-off if this was a dominant championship contender that merely fumbled a sport on nationwide TV. That type of staff may shrug Tuesday’s blunder off.
The Nets aren’t that. In reality, a scarcity of effort has been a relentless for them, not solely this season however each season since Durant and Irving have each been obtainable.
This is a staff that picks and chooses when it desires to play laborious. A staff that takes its foot off the gasoline altogether if the names on the opponent’s jerseys don’t carry the identical cache as their very own.
“It’s really a mentality of us deciding that we’re going to play defense,” Vaughn continued. “We can rating the basketball. We have particular person expertise. We’re studying how one can play collectively on the offensive finish of the ground. We had too many errors at halftime. The quantity of errors that we had at halftime was baffling for this group. Almost to the purpose the place we needed to cease the tape as a result of we didn’t have sufficient time left to point out all of them. “
Not giving effort isn’t an possibility — particularly not for a Nets staff that’s going to play small.
This is the elephant within the room in Brooklyn: As far as Nic Claxton has are available his improvement right into a reputable two-way heart, the pairing of him and Simmons is clunky.
And Claxton can’t cling with sure varieties of large males. Those varieties of bigs are grown males who bully their approach to rebounds and factors within the paint. He completed with solely 4 rebounds in 21 minutes of play.
Yes, the Nets misplaced as a result of Tobias Harris, De’Anthony Melton and Shake Milton every hit troublesome pictures at well timed moments. In reality, although, the Nets misplaced as a result of they couldn’t cease Philly’s backup large males.
Montrezl Harrell set the tone early with six factors and 4 rebounds within the opening minutes, however Paul Reed got here off the Sixer bench and dominated the Nets within the paint.
If you haven’t heard of Reed earlier than, that’s as a result of he’s the third-string heart and doesn’t historically get prolonged enjoying time as a result of Embiid performs nearly all of the minutes.
Reed completed with 19 factors, 10 rebounds, three steals and two blocks. The Sixers outscored the Nets by a game-high 21 factors in his 31 minutes on the ground.
Reed’s impression embodied the Nets’ largest weak spot, a weak spot that’s compounded when this staff doesn’t play laborious. They wrestle to seize rebounds, largely because of the lack of a dominant rebounding risk of their very own. The Sixers tallied 20 offensive rebounds. They outscored the Nets, 25-7, in second-chance factors.
“It’s the same s—t,” Durant stated after the sport. “Twenty more shots than us and seven more three-pointers. That’s the game.”
How do the Nets nip this ugly pattern within the bud for good?
“Just go do it,” he continued. “Just go do what we need to do. We know: rebound, box-out, move the ball, guard-up one-on-one.”
Vaughn stated he’s not afraid to go small towards greater groups, that he desires to make use of the mismatches created by shrinking the group on the ground to create benefits in transition.
But for this Nets staff, it’s boiling down to 1 phrase.
Heart.
The pictures they missed — Joe Harris shot 1-of-7 from downtown, Irving shot 2-of-8, and Patty Mills shot 1-of-3 from deep — are anticipated to drop. Durant, who scored lower than 25 factors (ending with 20) for the primary time all season, is predicted to dominate. The Nets are anticipated to be good.
Good groups, nonetheless, don’t win championships. Great groups do.
Only time will inform if this can be a superb or nice Nets staff. They have to point out they’ve the center to go away all of it on the ground each sport in pursuit of the championship they are saying they need.
Tuesday night time, they didn’t.
“I think rebounding is, you want it or I want it. And I am going to box you out or I’m not going to?” Vaughn stated. “Too many occasions tonight we made the selection to not field out and we paid for it. They had 19 extra pictures than us, that’s laborious to beat.
“We have a alternative and we stated that in a timeout: ‘Are we going to defend? Are we not going to defend? Are we going to take each possession serious or are we not?’
“Too many times tonight we made the choice not to.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com