The final game of the seeding round will have major playoff implications, just not for the Brooklyn Nets.
They locked themselves into the seventh seed by winning four of their first six games, and after Tuesday’s win against Orlando, they’re now 5-2 on the NBA Campus, including five wins in their last six after dropping their opener. Only unbeaten Phoenix and 6-1 Toronto have a better record in the NBA restart.
“I think looking around, you’re seeing a lot of teams that are finding their stride a little bit,” said Joe Harris. “We’ve sort of been able to piece it together in terms of playing well together, playing for each other and competing. I don’t think anyone’s looking at it now as an easy road to the playoffs. You know Phoenix did something similar. A lot of teams in here that have really started to find their stride as a team. It’s not necessarily individual stuff here and there. It’s more of a collective effort. You look at the way that we’re sharing the ball, sacrificing for each other on the defensive end, any time you play that way and you play hard, it’s tough to beat teams like that.”
With the playoff fate locked in place, Harris, Caris LeVert, Garrett Temple, and Jarrett Allen did not play Tuesday against Orlando. Head coach Jacque Vaughn said he expects that group to be available in the finale against the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday, but that he’d evaluate how to manage their minutes as the game progresses.
“I’ll stress to our group, like we talked about the other day leading into the Orlando game, that’s it about us,” said Vaughn. “That’s how we kind of broke the huddle before the game, that we weren’t going to be concerned who was playing or was not playing for Orlando. We’re not concerned who was playing or who’s not playing for Portland in the sense of, this is the next game on our schedule, an opportunity for us to find some rhythm going into the playoffs, and hopefully our guys have reached a point where when you see a guy in the opposite jersey on you on the opposite side of the floor you have extreme competition as your primary goal.”
It's a different story for Portland. The Blazers have matched Brooklyn’s 5-2 record to elevate their position in the more crowded race for the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. The West brought six teams to Orlando in the mix for that spot, and will definitely have a play-in. Portland is currently in eighth place, with a half-game lead on Memphis, Phoenix and San Antonio. All three of those teams play before Thursday’s 9 p.m. tip-off for Brooklyn and Portland. If two of them lose, the Blazers are in to the play-in. If two of them win, the Blazers will need to do so as well to survive.
“I think it’s a great last regular season game for us going into the playoffs,” said Harris. “It’s gonna be a playoff-like atmosphere and intensity, and in terms of preparation for us going forward, there’s no better game in terms of the scenario we have.”
The Blazers are a different team than the one the Nets beat in Portland back in November. They’ve added Carmelo Anthony, and center Jusuf Nurkic is back from last season’s knee injury. But some things are familiar: Damian Lillard is coming off back-to-back games of 51 and 61 points. He scored 60 against the Nets last fall, so they’ve seen this show before.
“They’re much more whole as a team right now, and offensively, I believe they are the No. 1 team in the bubble,” said Vaughn. “The efficiency that they’re playing at and the attention that Lillard deserves puts you on your heels. So, it will be on us to continue to be aggressors and try to dictate things, see if they can respond to some of the things that we’ll do. And then, you can watch the film and take some of the feedback on pick -and-roll coverage. What does that look like? We’ll look at the first game and see if we can get any feedback from those previous games. But like I said, we’ll try some things and see if we can learn something about ourselves.”
CHIOZZA QUESTIONABLE
Guard Chris Chiozza left Tuesday’s game against Orlando with an adductor strain, and on Wednesday the Nets listed him as questionable to face the Blazers.
“He sat out of practice today,” said Jacque Vaughn. “We’ll see what he feels like tomorrow. Again, the health and rhythm, that balance, we’ll see what he feels like tomorrow, but he did sit out of practice today.”
ALMOST A DOUBLE-DOUBLE FOR HALL
Center/forward Donta Hall has also been listed as questionable against Portland with an ankle sprain. Against Orlando on Tuesday, Hall had his longest and strongest showing as a Net, with 10 points and nine rebounds in 30 minutes.
When the Nets moved Rodions Kurucs into the starting lineup at forward against Sacramento on Friday, it seemed to offer an opening for Hall as Kurucs had been logging significant minutes as the backup center, but Hall quickly got into foul trouble against the Kings and then didn’t play against the Clippers.
“First, for Donta, I think his ability to grasp concepts has been pretty engaging for our coaching staff,” said Vaughn before Tuesday’s game. “Understanding defensively what he needs to do, protecting the rim, how we want to play. I give him credit for picking up the system pretty quickly and working his way back into some game conditioning shape.”
ABOUT THE BLAZERS
As Jacque Vaughn noted, the Blazers have been the NBA’s top offensive team in the bubble, with a 121.6 rating, while their 56.3 effective field goal percentage is fourth. Zooming back out for a view of the entirety of the season, they are third in the NBA in shooting 37.8 percent from 3-point range and also third from the free throw line, shooting 80.3 percent. Portland is second in blocks per game with 6.1, powered by individual leader Hassan Whiteside, who’s responsible for nearly half of that with 2.9 per game. Whiteside is also third in rebounding with 13.6 per game. Damian Lillard is third in the NBA in scoring with 29.8 points per game and tied for fifth with 8.0 assists per game.