Blowout Loss To Celts A Reminder Of Nets’ Fragility
Nets center Nic Claxton told the assembled media after his club was pasted, 139-96, in Boston on Wednesday night that if the two teams played ten more times, the score would never get that lopsided.
Well, maybe the Celtics wouldn’t always run out to 46-16 advantage after one quarter, their highest such point spread in their regal history, but blowouts would always be on the table given the game plan Brooklyn Head Coach Jacque Vaughn devised for this legitimate NBA title contender.
At least Vaughn acknowledged afterwards that he didn’t have his team ready to play against the bigger and more athletic Celtics. Granted, Vaughn was hamstrung by the absences of injured starters Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons plus reserve T.J. Warren, but he had other options besides starting such an undersized unit and then instructing them to switch into obvious mismatches. I wonder what guard Kyrie Irving thought when Vaughn told him in the locker room before the game, “Ok, you’re starting on (6-foot 10 center) Al Horford tonight.”
As I watched the ineffectual manner in which Brooklyn failed to compete at an NBA level, all I could think of was Billy Crystal’s routine from his one-man show “700 Sundays” about how his overmatched Long Beach High School squad fared when they faced powerhouse Erasmus Hall. The Celtics similarly toyed with the Nets, generating wide-open looks on most trips. Boston “cooled off” in garbage time, but through three quarters, they converted 20-of-37 three pointers (54.1%)—and many of what they missed were simply recovered on the offensive glass through sheer physicality.
A loss by a single point would have counted exactly the same in the NBA standings, but to me, this game underscored how fragile this team is, with so little margin for error if the goal is to come out of the Eastern Conference.
Obviously, Durant’s return, hopefully before the All-Star break in the middle of this month, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski’s reporting, greatly alters the equation. However, let’s not forget how easily the Celtics limited his and Irving’s effectiveness during their four-game sweep in the first round of last year’s playoffs. The Nets’ supporting cast then was also too small and defensively deficient to make up the difference. One key frontcourt injury and the Nets will be in the same boat this postseason.
When mainly healthy in December, the Nets (31-20) went on a 12-1 run, though the one loss was also to Boston. The starting five of Claxton, Durant, Simmons, Irving, and Royce O’Neale certainly had the requisite defensive mindset and the unit even started increasing their offensive efficiency despite the presence of two non-shooters.
The caveat: They’ve only played 20 games together all season. They just haven’t been reliable. Simmons, who could be a force by using his positive traits—the size and speed to defend, push pace, and pass—has been beset by continuing physical and mental issues to be counted on as a game-changer, so Vaughn has been forced to look elsewhere for answers.
Only he doesn’t have many, other than to go extra small and watch the beasts in the East devour his club. Besides Boston, the other two teams in the conference ahead of Brooklyn in the playoff race—Milwaukee and Philadelphia, are also big and physical.
Joe Harris has regained his starting gig and masterful three-point stroke in the wake of Brooklyn’s latest injury bug, but he plays with a giant Target sign on the front of his uniform. The ankle injury that ended his 2021-22 campaign prematurely and required multiple surgeries has seemingly curtailed what little athleticism he brought to the court, so opponents have been attacking him unmercifully despite his best efforts.
Warren, who looked like one of General Manager Sean Marks’ best free agency steals when he returned to action after nearly two years off while recovering from foot surgeries, has hit a wall. So has Yuta Watanabe, another forward whose 3-and-D skills are sorely needed. I wouldn’t say that big man Markieff Morris has fallen out of Vaughn’s favor because I don’t think he was ever at the top of Vaughn’s mind when it came to rotation planning.
That leaves relatively diminutive options like Seth Curry, Patty Mills, Cam Thomas, and Edmond Sumner to fill holes. Like with Harris, they each have to be rolling from deep in order to offset the damage from being exposed on the defensive end. Against the Celtics, that foursome went a cumulative 3-for-16 from behind the arc.
It’s been reported that Marks is looking to add size, but so are a lot of teams that have more to offer than the asset-depleted Nets. Another factor is the consequence of the league permanently adding the play-in round—from my vantage, I would only count out five teams from having a real shot at qualifying for the postseason with only a week to go before the trade deadline. That results in an awful lot of buyers looking to find a match with the few sellers.
This isn’t to extinguish all hope that Marks will get something done—he does have a knack for executing under pressure, for better or worse. I’m just skeptical that any move will significantly move the needle.
And based on how Brooklyn has performed in their matches to date this season against the NBA’s top teams—even while properly discounting the immense KD injury impact—that needle is shaking.