Nets Low Basketball IQ On Full Display In Another Bad Loss

Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

Ah, it’s been such a joy to watch the Nets play out the string this season, hasn’t it? With opportunities to gain ground on Atlanta for the Eastern Conference’s 10^th and final play-in seed just in the last two weeks, Brooklyn has dropped games to Memphis, Detroit, Charlotte, and, most recently, to San Antonio on Sunday night. The cumulative records of those four clubs is 67-204 (.247 winning percentage).

To borrow from my Jets forum, just end this season.

I got a chuckle when I saw a social media post that the Nets are guilty of playing down to their opponents’ level. Um, this IS their level. They haven’t exactly leveled up against their stiffer competition, as evidenced by all the routs during this 14-33 stretch since December 8.

That’s too much of a season to assert that this team is better than anyone. They are who their record says they are (h/t Bill Parcells). What Brooklyn lacks in basketball talent they make up for with incredibly low basketball IQ. They’re literally handing games away now—Saturday’s close contest in the third quarter at Indiana was blown open by a barrage of Nets turnovers.

The dumbness factor goes beyond the shot selection process that has led to legions of quick-trigger threes and wild forays to the rim that have been converted at below-average rates. Between Brooklyn’s rotations and its irritating lack of awareness on both ends, being a Nets fan this season has been one long ordeal of head-smacking, a form of “Dumb and Dumber”—which one am I for caring?

Sunday’s 122-115 overtime loss to the Spurs displayed everything that’s been wrong with this team all season—the inconsistent efforts, lack of discipline, and just general poor decision-making by players and Head Coach Kevin Ollie. But hey, at least center Nic Claxton wasn’t T’d up after a dunk tonight.

I’d like to say it started with Nets center Day’Ron Sharpe’s reckless flagrant foul on Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan midway through the fourth quarter. The Nets were up by 10 points when Sharpe took Sochan down under the Spurs basket, giving San Antonio two free throws and the ball. It turned into a five-point possession after Devin Vassell nailed a three-pointer and we had a new ballgame.

In reality, the Nets had several chances to put this (other) miserable team away, but instead let up. In one third quarter sequence, we got the full Dennis Smith Jr. experience. The backup point guard’s hound dog defense created a steal off an intercepted pass, but then he blew the contested fast break layup. Smith then hustled to grab the rebound off the floor and made a terrific feed to a cutting Sharpe for an and-one opportunity. Only Smith received a technical foul, which was converted by San Antonio, and Sharpe missed the free throw. So what should have been a momentum-swinging three-point play to break a tie game ended with Brooklyn up by one point.

Starting point guard Dennis Schroder, aside from a game-tying three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining in regulation, was hardly more attentive to the mission. He had some possessions where he thought he was playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. Except the Spurs aren’t the Washington Generals and turned his fancy passes and handles over five times. Oh, and did the scouting report note that San Antonio rookie Victor Wembanyama is freakishly long, so that challenging him at the rim would be a bad idea?

Apparently not, because Wembanyama finished with 7 blocks to go along with his 33 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists. His most consequential swat came with 25 seconds remaining in overtime and the Spurs nursing a one-point lead. Schroder thought he had a free path to the rim, only Wembanyama came over in help defense to pin his layup against the backboard. After an initial goaltending call, it was correctly reversed as a clean block upon the officials’ review.

But let’s take a closer look at what transpired before and after that play. Ollie had called a timeout with 38 seconds left to set something up. Though not absolutely necessary, it would have been ideal for Brooklyn to get off a somewhat early shot so that it would be ensured another possession at the end. Instead, the Nets held the ball as precious seconds ticked off looking like they were waiting on an isolation play for Thomas or Schroder. No real screens on or off the ball were executed. If that was indeed the call, Ollie’s instruction in the huddle should have been to go on the catch.

Ollie had another chance to make a wrong-headed decision a few seconds later following a Spurs layup (the refs missed Schroder’s obvious attempt to give a foul) put them up, 118-115. This time, there seemed to be a well-designed set—for Cam Johnson, with Thomas, who led the Nets with 31 points, somehow sent to the bench for this crucial offensive possession.

Sure, let’s put the game in the hands of a player who to that point had been 3-for-17 on three-pointers in clutch situations this season, defined by NBA.com as games that were within a five-point margin in the last five minutes. Johnson’s stroke always looks pure, but sometimes players of that ilk aren’t adept at knocking down those rushed attempts under pressure. Nets fans saw this many times with Joe Harris.

For what it’s worth, Thomas has been the NBA’s least efficient shooter in the clutch (minimum 20 such attempts), going 8-for-33 from the field, including 3-for-21 from deep. But by choosing Johnson, Ollie couldn’t point to those numbers as a reason for not even allowing Thomas to be used as a decoy, where he surely would have attracted much attention from the Spurs defense. In his postgame press conference, Ollie didn’t give much of an explanation, other than to claim responsibility for the five-man lineup.  

What does it matter anyway? The construction of a team dependent on damaged goods Ben Simmons, the coaching, the play on the court—it’s all been ill-advised, to put it mildly. Or just plain dumb.