As Nets Struggle In Crunch Time, Vaughn’s Choices Come Under Scrutiny
If Jacque Vaughn is a superstitious man, I think he needs to change his routine.
It was a lot easier for the Nets Head Coach to get on a fortunate roll when he had superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving at his disposal; when both were traded before the February 9 deadline, his gambles have since been more dicey.
The Nets were 20-9 in “clutch” games, defined by NBA>com as those that were within a five-point margin within the last five minutes, prior to the deadline. The win total tied for the league lead while their .690 win percentage ranked third. They are a fifth-worst 4-7 in such games since.
I’m not going to imply that Vaughn lost brainpower when he lost his two stars, but it’s clear that some his recent choices aren’t making him look all that astute, especially in Brooklyn’s last two games.
Despite some curious strategies, Vaughn’s club was able to eke out Sunday’s contest versus visiting Utah after nearly coughing up a 23-point lead over the final ten minutes, but the Nets’ end-game luck did not extend to Tuesday night’s crucial 107-102 loss to Minnesota at Barclays Center.
The defeat allowed Miami to creep to within one game of Brooklyn (43-36) for sixth place, the Eastern Conference’s cut-off to avoid the play-in round, with each team slated for three remaining games and the Nets owning the tiebreaker. (Note: Oddly, of both teams’ final four games, three are against common opponents—the Heat get the lost cause Wizards instead of the Timberwolves.)
With the Nets on a back-to-back in Detroit on Wednesday night, Vaughn put a ton of his chips on beating the Wolves. Outside of Royce O’Neale, the Nets’ other four subs totaled about 26:30 of court time, as Vaughn rolled with his two primary scorers Mikal Bridges for 40 minutes and Spencer Dinwiddie for 38 minutes.
That’s a heavy load to recover from on an overnight flight. Maybe both will have the juice to take on a lowly Pistons squad that will also be playing on consecutive nights, but Brooklyn’s performance in its last back-to-back at Orlando ten days ago should give Nets fans the shakes. That night, the Nets’ shooting legs went to jelly and the Magic cruised to a double-digit win.
The one player Vaughn could have extended but neglected to ride against the towering T-Wolves was center Nic Claxton, the Nets unicorn defender who exited the contest with 4:24 remaining and never returned, even when Brooklyn was desperate for a stop in the final two minutes.
It was a lousy gamble, as bad as Vaughn’s decision to challenge an out-of-bounds call with 39.6 seconds remaining on a ball that obviously was last touched by Nets forward Dorian Finney Smith’s leg. While Vaughn was hoping that removing the non-shooting Claxton would open the floor for Dinwiddie on offense, he forgot that this team isn’t talented enough at isolation basketball and needs to survive with defense.
So it was no wonder that Minnesota big man Karl-Anthony Towns feasted on the smaller O’Neale and/or Finney-Smith with six points in a key two-minute span during crunch time. With Claxton on the bench, the Nets managed to get just one stop while allowing 14 points.
Meanwhile, the Nets’ late-game offense continues to mainly feature Dinwiddie pounding the rock until the shot clock winds down, when he then takes on his targeted defender—in Tuesday’s case, Minnesota’s Kyle Anderson. Over the last two games, here are the Nets’ field goal attempts during NBA.com’s clutch minutes: Dinwiddie 7, Bridges 2.
Considering Bridges, the reigning NBA Player of the Week, was a 50/40/90 shooter while averaging 27.6 points per game since coming over from Phoenix in the Durant trade before Tuesday’s rough outing (9-for-24), it seems unconscionable that Vaughn has been revolving his offense around the less efficient Dinwiddie (41.2/30.8/79.1) when these big games are decided.
On Sunday, Vaughn did not seem to have a plan for when the Jazz double-teamed Dinwiddie in the fourth quarter. Nor did he bother spend a timeout as Brooklyn’s lead quickly evaporated after every Nets miss seemed to be quickly answered with a Jazz bucket (or a Nets foul) in transition. Vaughn actually left one of his timeouts on the table at the 3:00 mark.
I know, the bottom line is that the Nets ended up beating the Jazz, who couldn’t take advantage of the open door left by two missed Seth Curry free throws with 5.6 remaining and the Nets up, 111-110. Utah’s last shot went to Kelly Olynyk, who clanked a contested 18-footer.
That doesn’t excuse the bad process, which came back to bite the Nets in the next game. Since his instincts haven’t gotten the desired results and with much at stake, Vaughn should be taking a long look at how he has been managing these close games.