The Brooklyn Nets followed Wednesday’s 145-141 win over the Atlanta Hawks with their lowest-scoring and worst-shooting game of the season in a Friday rematch. Despite the off night, Brooklyn remains among the top 10 teams in the league in points (sixth, 117.3), offensive rating (eight, 111.4), and 3-point percentage (10th, 37.7).
It’s understood that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would lead this offense, and they have. Durant is averaging 28.2 points per game and Irving 26.2, with Durant shooting 51.0 percent and Irving 48.0. Brooklyn is plus-63 in 152 minutes with Durant and Irving on the floor together, and minus-27 in 115 minutes with neither. After playing the two in tandem through their first three games, Nets coach Steve Nash has started to stagger them a bit over the last two.
While Joe Harris is also shooting 50 percent — 50.0 exactly, including 53.6 percent from 3-point range — the Nets are otherwise missing some consistency on offense. Even with 56 points off the bench on Wednesday in the strongest second unit performance of the season, it was 30 fourth-quarter points from Durant and Irving — including 20 of Brooklyn’s final 22 — that carried the Nets home. The Nets are fourth in bench minutes, eighth in bench points, and 16th in bench field goal percentage.
“I think offensively, same as defense, we're still trying to learn each other,” said Caris LeVert. “What spots we're effective on the court. I think the injury to Spencer (Dinwiddie) kind of hurt us a little bit as well with the teams out there playing each other we got some new lineups now and guys are still trying to settle into their roles but I think it will come. I think we have a lot of talent on that end of the floor and it will all figure itself out to be honest with you.”
Dinwiddie’s ACL tear on Sunday has been part of a topsy-turvy week for the Nets in terms of lineups. They went without Durant and Irving as well in Monday’s overtime loss to Memphis, and then returned with Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot plugged into Dinwiddie’s starting spot in the first game against Atlanta.
In a season with some limitations in practice time, from a shortened camp to an every-other-day game schedule, the Nets are integrating Durant and Irving under a new head coach, and now they’ve lost Dinwiddie. Nash has said the primary focus in the time the Nets have had to practice has been defense, and while that may not be a hindrance for players with the one-on-one excellence of Durant and Irving, the larger group is still searching for some rhythm.
“I think the more we get into our actions, those guys will get a little few more opportunities,” said Nash. “But yeah, when you’re a young group like this that hasn’t played a lot together, it does take time to form cohesion, and offense wasn’t necessarily a priority going into camp. We only had so much time. So we’ve got a lot of work to do on both sides. The offense could get into more actions and get into them quicker, where everyone could be a threat. And that would suit the other guys. Hopefully they can create space for our two stars, and our stars can create space for them. But we just have to find that cohesion.”
DEFENSIVE CHECK-UP
After the Nets gave up 141 points in Wednesday’s win, the focus going into Friday was on defense. While the Nets trimmed Atlanta’s total to 114, the Hawks still shot 41.0 percent from 3-point range.
After Saturday’s film session, Steve Nash referenced miscommunication — or a lack of communication — and missed assignments.
“Getting back and turning and facing in transition, getting matched up talking through the matchups, knowing what’s a switch and what’s a pursue over, being in the right positions of support, so I could go on and on,” said Nash, “So without giving out chapter one in Nets basketball defense, just we’ve slipped a little. Going into Atlanta, we were No. 1 in the league (in defense) and obviously they were sensational offensively and we were poor in the first game, but in the second game, the defense wasn’t too bad in the halfcourt, it was transition that killed us.
“So getting back to principles, recognizing that we’re a group that — a lot of it is the newness, not just with the principles but with each other. Why we can say, ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey. This is what we’re in. This is what we’re doing.’ Not going off script or trying to read-react. [We’re] trying to be proactive with our principles, so some of that just takes time, and it’s a process so we’re just gonna have to stick with it.”
DEFENDING THE BOARDS
Part of the defensive issue, Steve Nash has pointed out, has been rebounding. Before Friday’s game, he emphasized gang rebounding as a focus for Brooklyn. But even with Kyrie Irving grabbing 11 boards and Kevin Durant getting eight, the Hawks had 22 second-chance points, after getting 24 on Wednesday. Brooklyn is allowing the most second-chance points in the league (20.8), while also ranking last in defensive rebounding percentage (66.7) and opponent offensive rebounding percentage (14.8).
Nash said rebounding would be “a process all year for us,” and that the Nets needed to “be greedy down there.”
“I don’t know that we’re built as a rebounding roster, but we have other attributes,” said Nash. “Not every team, not every championship team even, has to be the best top-10 rebounding team or anything like that. We have to be hungry, we have to recognize that it isn’t a natural thing for us to go out and dominate the boards every night. We have to gang rebound and do it in numbers.”
ABOUT THE WIZARDS
The Wizards are 1-5 after beating Minnesota 130-109 on Friday for their first win. Defense has been the culprit so far, with Washington 25th in the NBA in defensive rating (113.4). But the Wizards will be another test for the Brooklyn defense. They’re fifth in the NBA in points (117.8), sixth in field goal percentage (48.7), seventh in 3-point percentage (37.9), and seventh in effective field goal percentage (55.6). They’re also second in assists (28.3). Bradley Beal is second in the NBA with 31.2 points per game, and Russell Westbrook has brought his regular triple-double rates to D.C., averaging 19.8 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 12.3 assists.