A Not-So-Small Lineup Adjustment To Small Ball Allows Nets To Finish Another Epic Comeback Versus Rival Knicks
Sometimes, when the Nets are straggling on the defensive end without the requisite compete level, a challenge, particularly something that gets their feet moving even if it forces them into scramble mode, can get them going in the proper direction.
And, as is often the case, adversity is the mother of invention. So, when Nets center Nic Claxton picked up his fifth foul with 7:36 remaining and Brooklyn trailing the host Knicks, 93-90, on Wednesday night after expending a ton of energy to come back from 21 points down in the third quarter, Nets Head Coach Steve Nash went unorthodox in the hope that it could get his club over the hump.
The Nets debuted their newest version of their Bagel Lineup, with none of their five rostered centers on the floor. Instead, forward Kevin Durant and The Smurfs (Kyrie Irving, Bruce Brown, Seth Curry, and Patty Mills, none of whom are listed over 6-foot 4) finished the game with a 17-5 run to lift Brooklyn to a huge 110-98 victory that kept them in control of their own destiny in terms of securing the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference play-in race. It was the second time this season that the Nets (42-38) erased a 20-plus point deficit to beat their interborough rivals at Madison Square Garden.
In theory, the small-ball tactic shouldn’t have worked, as the Knicks young and athletic frontline of Jericho Sims and Obi Toppin were wreaking havoc when the Nets had been matching their size. However, despite the massive height discrepancies, the Nets clamped down, holding New York to 1-for-9 shooting with 2 turnovers in the decisive stretch. With all those missed Knicks shots, Brooklyn somehow grabbed every defensive rebound but one, which Sims had stripped from his hands by Mills. Durant’s jumper on the ensuing possession put the Nets up for good, 98-96, with 4:15 remaining.
Irving, who started the game looking like he was pacing himself on the back end of the Nets’ back-to-back, was an entirely different defender throughout the fourth quarter. Whereas Knicks point guard Alec Burks bullied Irving early and often en route to 18 first-half points, Irving found the “On” switch just in the Knick of time (pun intended). Early in the final frame, he picked Burks’ pocket to lead a fast break that ended with a vicious alley-oop to Durant that punctuated an 11-2 run to get Brooklyn within one and later took the hit to draw a crucial Burks offensive foul with 3:28 remaining.
While Irving offers extreme ends of the defensive spectrum, from into-your-body physicality to total disengagement, Durant is the Nets’ constant--when he’s been healthy, of course. If not for his 21-game absence due to a sprained MCL in his left knee, during which the Nets went 5-16, these final regular season games would have been treated as tune-ups instead of the team’s current predicament where Nash can’t afford to give his stars much of a break.
So it wasn’t ideal to place so much defensive responsibility on Durant’s slim shoulders, especially given his minutes load (42, including all 24 in the second half, the night after toiling 37 minutes so the Nets could squeak by bottom-feeding Houston) and offensive burden.
However, we are witnessing brilliance on a level unseen in franchise history—and I go back to Dr. J. As such, it’s no surprise that KD again proved up to the challenge. His fourth quarter stats—13 points on 5-for-8 shooting with 6 assists and 9 (!!!) rebounds don’t even do him justice in terms of how he took over the game on both ends.
The Knicks sent waves of defenders, sometimes two at a time, in an attempt to disrupt KD’s rhythm in crunch time. However, the intended consequence of Nash going small was to unlock the Nets’ offense. Playing four-out, with Brown as the screen-and-roller/double-team outlet and the two stars surrounded by three-point marksmen Curry and Mills allowed Brooklyn to properly space the floor, which isn’t possible when playing a traditional 5 since the team’s best three-point shooting center is LaMarcus Aldridge with a substandard 30.4% conversion rate. Curry and Mills each hit dagger 3s to allow the Nets to pull away inside of two minutes. The Mills three-pointer to beat the shot clock with 1:06 to go was especially sweet, as it capped a 4-for-4 quarter from deep after he had gone 18-for-his-last-74 (24%) on his 3s over his last 13 games.
As Durant said after the game, while it’s nice to know the Nets have it in them to come back from big deficits, it’s not where they want to be. And that deplorable first half, where Brooklyn’s defense surrendered the equivalent of 128.8 points per 100 possessions to an even more injury-depleted team can’t be ignored.
When the Nets host Cleveland, with electric point guard Darius Garland, on Friday for the rights to seventh place and home court in any play-in games, they need to come out with a better understanding of what they’re doing defensively. The schemes that call for starting center Andre Drummond to switch pick-and-rolls have to be scrapped. Too often it leaves the Nets mismatched on both ends of the switch, with Drummond unable to contain the ballhandler while also too far from the basket to aid in finishing the possession with a rebound. Opponents shouldn’t be able to pick their advantage that easily.
Warning to the Nets: If either or both of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley return from their respective injuries to the Cavs lineup in time for Friday’s game, going small won’t give the Nets the same boost that it just did at MSG.