Despite Disappointing Loss In Irving’s Home Debut, Nets Defense Continued Showing Positive Signs
The Nets of this vintage have an annoying habit of disappointing their fans in many of the most highly-anticipated showdowns at Barclays Center (see: Game 7 of the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals), so it wasn’t all that surprising when Charlotte took advantage of Brooklyn’s weariness to come away with a crucial 119-110 victory on Sunday night in Nets superstar Kyrie Irving’s first home game this season.
The Nets, who got back to the area at 4am on Sunday morning after trouncing the Heat, 110-95, on the road on Saturday, just didn’t have their legs on the back-to-back. The unvaccinated Irving, playing in front of an arena-record crowd of 18,166, shot a miserable 6-for-22 from the floor, including 1-for-9 from deep. Having been banned from stepping on a New York City court all season due to the COVID-19 vaccine mandates, maybe he just needed to get readjusted to the Barclays Center rims.
As a result, instead of adding some breathing room in the battle for eighth place in the East, the Nets (39-36) dropped behind the Hornets into the 9/10 play-in slot courtesy of Charlotte’s tiebreaker edge with seven games remaining. If the standings hold, the Nets would be forced to win twice in a two-game single-elimination pre-tournament instead of having to win only once from the 7/8 double-elimination seeds.
While you’d think this turn of events calls for commiseration, I’m here to tell you not to fret so much, for I have been seeing some positive signs of late that could potentially get this train finally rolling in the right direction.
The consensus opinion among most experts is that the one thing—other than the health of their stars, of course—that could derail Brooklyn in the postseason is their defense. The Nets rank 22nd in the league in defensive efficiency at 112.4 points allowed per 100 possessions this season, per NBA.com. We constantly hear about how teams this porous on D rarely win it all. Don’t get me wrong, at times, it’s been grotesque, from a plethora of breakdowns to the many games where the team just didn’t put forth the requisite effort.
Folks, like every investment prospectus you peruse, understand that past performances are no guarantee of future results. Forget the first three-quarters of the season. This is a different team. The Nets no longer have to hide the loafing Harden on the defensive end. Irving can be just as lackadaisical, but he has a different gear for games that matter. Look at how he shut down Harden in the overhyped March 10 contest in Philadelphia, Harden’s first game against the Nets since forcing them to trade him away the month before, and navigated all those illegal Bam Adebayo screens in Miami on Saturday.
People forget that it wasn’t defense that enabled the Bucks to win four of the last five games to take last season’s series—the Nets owned the fourth-best defensive rating among the 16 playoff teams. Injuries to Harden and Irving devastated the offense, forcing Kevin Durant to try to win the series all by himself. And he almost did.
The point being that despite Sunday’s defeat, the Nets are showing that they are getting better at the details needed to turn the screws on opposing playoff teams when the time comes. The remaining issue has been consistency, which can be cured by the urgency of postseason basketball and a more spread-out game schedule.
When they’re playing the right way, the Nets are active, getting their hands on balls in search of opportunities to unleash their lethal transition game. They rotate out harder to three-point shooters and seamlessly scram out of bad switches down low, Most importantly, they gang rebound to limit second-chance points against.
They have the players to get the job done. Nic Claxton has been at his disruptive best since his return from a hamstring injury. In March, Claxton owns the league’s best defensive rating at 99.8 (minimum 8 games played, 15 minutes per game), using his size and athleticism not just to switch out onto guards but to also protect the rim and to help out with the rebounding (though that part is still a work in progress).
The Nets have been playing more drop pick-and-roll coverage since Andre Drummond came over in the Harden trade, which puts a premium on perimeter defenders that can recover from screens. Bruce Brown has been phenomenal in that regard, playing like he needs to show Head Coach Steve Nash that he belongs in a playoff rotation.
Remember, the Nets might just have a defensive ace up their sleeve. Who knows what the impact of adding two-time NBA First Team All-Defense Ben Simmons, who has yet to even practice with the Nets since coming here in the Harden trade due to a herniated disc in his back, will be if he can get added into the mix, even if it’s just for 20 minutes per game? Brown has been all that he can be—and maybe a little more—but imagine putting Simmons, at 6-foot10, in Brown’s spot.
The Nets played pockets of good defense against the Hornets, but not enough to overcome such an off shooting night. Charlotte, meanwhile, couldn’t miss from long range, knocking down 17-of-32 three-pointers. LaMelo Ball was draining high-arcing threes while drifting off the court and then two daggers were provided by reserve Cody Martin, who came into the contest having missed his last nine three-point attempts over his prior five games. Martin barely beat the shot clock with a one-legged heave on his first one and then was the beneficiary of a broken play off a blocked shot to put Charlotte up, 113-108, with 1:12 remaining.
Nash was correct in asserting in his postgame press conference that the Nets need to learn how to win such games where his stars don’t have it, but, other than the third quarter, when the Hornets dropped 37 points on 27 possessions, the team’s defensive performance really wasn’t as bad as Charlotte’s final output indicated—110.8 points allowed per 100 possessions, which is about league average, in the other three frames. The Nets forced nine live-ball turnovers against one of the cleanest teams in the league and blocked 11 shots. Memphis, which leads the NBA in both categories, averages 9.8 steals and 6.6 blocks per game.
On Saturday, the Nets, as the team with the rest advantage, were at their swarming best, recording a season-high 15 steals and limiting Miami to 3 second-chance points. So, trash the past and concentrate on Brooklyn’s defense going forward--If they can keep up their effort from their best outings, that will really make them the scary opponent no team wants to face in a playoff series.