The Brooklyn Nets elevated expectations right out of the gate when they blew past the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics in winning their first two games of the 2020-21 NBA season by a combined 54 points. Coming on the heels of some one-sided preseason wins, the Nets were piling up points behind Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and off to a solid start on the defensive end as well.
Things started to turn in a 106-104 loss to Charlotte a week ago, a game in which the Nets also lost starting guard Spencer Dinwiddie to an ACL tear. A string of tight losses followed — overtime against Memphis, and by a point to Washington, with a split against Atlanta in between — as the Nets have lost four of their last five.
“I don’t know if the guys are putting too much pressure on themselves,” said Durant after Sunday night’s 123-122 loss to the Washington Wizards. “I think everybody wants to do well out there, and it’s just some mental things that we’re doing that we end up beating ourselves a little bit. Like I said, turnovers and box outs, 13 offensive rebounds for them. It felt like they got more than that. We’re all on the same page. It’s about each possession, figuring it out, and making sure we’re communicating, but also making sure we’re playing off instincts.”
They’ll try and get things going in the other direction when they host the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night at Barclays Center. Durant has been listed as out for the game due to health and safety protocols.
“It’s just taking time,” said Irving. “And it's not going to be put together overnight, nor am I expecting it to, nor am I going to get frustrated over six games or however many games we've played. The object of this regular season is to continue to get better and to prepare for the 16 wins in the playoffs. So I’m just gonna enjoy this.”
GETTING IN THE WORK
Since the NBA announced the 2020-21 season would start Christmas week, just a month after the NBA Draft, everything about the year has been on fast-forward. That includes the reduced 72-game schedule that is being contested over less than five months. It makes in-season practices a rare occurrence.
The Nets are playing 17 games in 31 days in January, and have a stretch of six games in nine days that begins with Thursday’s game against Philadelphia.
“It’s a challenge, for sure. It’s a great question that we discuss and debate,” said Steve Nash. “You’d think in professional sports it’s simple. Oh, just getting them in and practicing. When you play 17 games in 31 days, they need time off. They need time off for their legs, their minds and their bodies, they need time home with their families, so there’s some off days in there. So those practice days where you can’t necessarily practice, you have to find ways to be effective. Perhaps we have to look at game days as well to be more impactful, not just it be a game day. So how can we refine, touch the players on our principles and schemes and weaknesses, reinforce our strengths, all those things, every chance we get. Even if it’s only 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there, 30 minutes on an off day. You never know how much time it is, but you’ve got to try to find widows and pockets and be creative and be diligent with it.”
Both Nash and players have referenced an emphasis on film work to identify and rectify problem areas.
“We still come in and watch film and guys get work on their bodies and we still mentally are locked in,” said Kevin Durant. “It may take some games for us to kind of gauge ourselves and figure out where we are and seeing how we can make some adjustments because it‘s hard to get practice time — you know, when we practice, we like to get up and down and I think that helps us. So, we're using the games for good teaching moments for all of us and just got to keep grinding.”
“Coaches are sending us film, extra film, we're in the film room all the time, talking to guys on and off the court about what we could do extra to help each other out,” said Jarrett Allen. “The communication is nonstop. It's hard to be on the floor all the time when we have games every other day but still we're helping each other off the court just as much.”
DURANT DISHING
Steve Nash has referenced Spencer Dinwiddie’s versatility in addressing what the Nets have lost with Dinwiddie’s knee injury, but perhaps Dinwiddie’s most significant, and hardest to replace attribute, may have been his role as a secondary ball-handler in the Brooklyn starting lineup to Kyrie Irving. Dinwiddie, traditionally a point guard, and Brooklyn’s leader with 6.8 assists per game last year, allowed the Nets to free up Irving to play off the ball as well.
In order to run those kinds of actions now, the Nets are leaning a little bit more on Kevin Durant for ball-handling. Durant, who averages 4.1 assists per game for his career, had eight assists against Atlanta on Friday and seven against Washington on Sunday.
“I’d like to have the ball in his hands a little more as a playmaker or as a guy that can facilitate,” said Steve Nash. “We’re trying to find that balance. That may take a while. Spencer is a big loss. I like it when Kevin is able to handle or at least catch it in spots where players can cut off of him. I feel comfortable with that concept. We’ve done some of that. We’d like to increase that, but we’re still trying to find that balance and cohesion.”
TLC FOR THREE
Before Sunday’s game, Steve Nash said he wasn’t worried about a couple of off shooting nights from Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, and TLC showed why against Washington. Luwawu-Cabarrot made 4-of-5 3-pointers and shot 5-of-7 overall for 14 points and the Nets were plus-8 when he was on the court against the Wizards.
ABOUT THE JAZZ
The Jazz are 4-2 with guards Mike Conley (20.3 ppg) and Donovan Mitchell (20.2) leading the scoring. Conley is shooting 45.8 percent from 3-point range, and the Jazz are fifth in the league in 3-pointers made (15.0), fourth in attempts (39.5), and seventh in 3-point percentage (38.0). They’re also first in rebounds per game (51.3) and rebounding percentage (54.6), with Rudy Gobert second in the league with 13.7 rebounds per game. Gobert is also fourth with 2.2 blocks per game and averages 14.5 points. Former Net Bojan Bogdanovic is averaging 14.0 points and shooting 40.0 percent on 3-pointers.