On the morning of Tuesday, December 18, the second longest active winning streak in the NBA belongs to the Brooklyn Nets.
Only Indiana's 7-0 run exceeds Brooklyn's current stretch of five straight. The Pacers will visit Barclays Center on Friday, but first the Nets host LeBron James the Los Angeles Lakers tonight.
The winning streak has stabilized Brooklyn's season after a string of eight straight losses.
"That's the NBA, almost in a nutshell," said Joe Harris of the way things have turned for the Nets. "The swings are big when you're playing, and the swings are big even over the course of the season or course of the year. We knew that. Obviously it's tough when you're in the midst of an eight-game losing streak to think long term. But you look back, and at the end of that eight games I think we had 57 more games left. That's kind of the way you have to view it, that you have a lot of season left and lot of time to right the ship, and that's kind of where we're at right now."
Coach Kenny Atkinson described the home-heavy swing that began after Thanksgiving as an opportunity for the Nets to "make some money." They came up empty early, but they've won their last three at Barclays Center with three more coming up before New Year's, starting tonight.
OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION
The Nets put up 144 points in Sunday's win against the Atlanta Hawks -- an even 72 in each half -- in the second-highest scoring regulation game in team history.
It was the latest big scoring game for the Nets, who have had an offensive outbreak coincide with their win streak.
Brooklyn has a league-leading offensive rating of 119.2 over its last five games. On Dec. 6, the day before the streak started, the Nets were 16th in the league with a rating of 108.2. They're averaging 122.8 points, also first in the league, up from 108.7 and 19th in the NBA on Dec. 6.
"I think we're really sharing the ball," said Kenny Atkinson. "Thirty-four assists two games in a row. That's high level, making the extra pass, good to great, playing with the pass, all the stuff we have been preaching since the beginning and then, obviously, that thing is going in. I would add to that, our drive game. We are an aggressive driving team and that opened stuff up for our shooting."
For the season, the Nets are second in the league in drives per game with 51.8, and that's up only slightly over the last five games, to 52.6. But they've seen big jumps in shooting percentages. Overall field goal percentage has gone from 44.1 and 26th through Dec. 6 to 50.2 and second over the last five games. Three-point field goal percentage is up to 40.4 and second in the NBA over the last five games compared to 34.8 and 19th through Dec. 6.
Brooklyn aims to get its shots at the rim or beyond the arc, mostly avoiding the mid-range areas. Right now, they're feeding off each other, with driving lanes opening up from defenders running shooters off the line, or downhill drives pulling in the defense before kick-outs for open threes.
"What is the defense giving us? We don't have a set thing, we have to get this many threes or this few mid-range shots," said Atkinson, "but it does reinforce what we're trying to accomplish, both on the offensive end, that's a big part of it, the high-value shots."
WINNING ON THE BOARDS
Center Ed Davis has had his two busiest nights of the season over Brooklyn's last three games, with 28 minutes Sunday against Atlanta and 30 minutes earlier in the week at Philadelphia.
Davis had 10 rebounds overall and three offensive in each game. He leads the league in offensive rebound percentage with a career-high 16.4. Over the last five games, the Nets have an offensive rebound percentage of 31.6, fifth in the NBA, elevating them to seventh for the full season with a 29.9 percentage.
"His offensive rebounding has been contagious," said Kenny Atkinson. "Not only is he offensive rebounding, but as a whole I think we're ninth in the league in offensive rebounding. For a team that, it's not our No. 1 thing to do, so what is offensive rebounding? It punishes switches I think. Everybody's switching now. When they switch a guard on Ed Davis, now you've got to worry about Ed Davis cleaning up the offensive rebounds. I think if I'm a coach scheming against the Nets, we've got to be a little careful switching with Ed out there because he's going to punish us on the boards. It's been a big help for our offense."
The Nets have not lost a rebounding battle during their five-game win streak, matching the Sixers and beating the Raptors, Knicks, Wizards and Hawks on the boards.
ABOUT THE LAKERS
The Lakers are 18-12 after Sunday's 128-110 loss to the Washington Wizards. Los Angeles is 16-7 after a 2-5 start and since its eighth game on Oct. 31 has the league's No. 6 defensive rating, 105.0, over 23 games. Overall, the Lakers have a net rating of 1.9, eighth in the league. They're playing the league's third fastest pace at a rate of 103.82. The Nets are 23rd in the league in pace (99.60), but over their five-game win streak that has jumped to 100.51, 12th in the league. LeBron James leads the Lakers with 27.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game while shooting 51.9 percent.