What a difference a month makes for Nets
Brooklyn Nets' Spencer Dinwiddie (26) lays up a shot in front of Boston Celtics' Al Horford (42) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 3, 2023, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) Credit: Michael Dwyer
BOSTON — The last time Nic Claxton walked into TD Garden, it seemed like everything was going his way.
Claxton, in his first full year as a starter, was a budding star. The Nets had the fourth-best record in the East and were playing well enough that it looked like they could hang on until Kevin Durant came back from his knee injury. It seemed it was just going to be a matter of weeks before the whole team was back together on the floor and the Nets would be able to make a run at the top teams in the East.
Little did Claxton — or anyone except for possibly Kyrie Irving — know that that Feb. 1 game against the Celtics would be the beginning of the end of the Nets' title hopes.
First, the Celtics would blow out the Nets by 43 points. Next, it would soon become clear that that was Irving’s last game as a Net as two days later he would demand a trade. Finally, eight days after the nasty loss, both Durant and Irving would be on someone else’s roster. And Nets fans would be dazed and scratching their heads.
Claxton conceded after the Nets' shootaround Friday that he couldn’t help but reflect on just how much had changed since he last saw the parquet floor.
“Yeah, it is what it is,” Claxton said. “Last time, we were here we got beat by a lot. I really try not to think about it though, just try to stay in the present. Because everything that happened, it happened. You can’t change it. So now we have to come here with our new team and focus on getting a win.”
The Nets, who were second place in the East when Durant was injured in January, entered Friday night’s play barely hanging on to sixth place with a four-game lead on the Wizards, who are in the 10th and last play-in spot.
Since the last time they tipped off against the Celtics here, the Nets have gone 3-9 and lost four in a row.
Most notably, they have also struggled mightily on defense as the four new players that Jacque Vaughn has been starting — Cam Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Mikal Bridges and Spencer Dinwiddie — aren’t used to the switching defense that the Nets like to play and Claxton excelled in. Complicating things further, Ben Simmons — one of their better defenders — has been out with back and knee issues since the All-Star break.
“[It’s] in the middle of the season and we’re getting new players and not having KD and Ben on the backside to fix a lot of things,” Vaughn said of the Nets’ defensive struggles. “We’re trying to adjust our defense. And we’re trying to figure it out. The last few games have been bad as you can see, giving up way too many points. But we’re having practices and walk throughs and we’ll figure it out.”
Vaughn knew his team was going to have its hands full. When the Nets lost to the Celtics on Feb. 1, the Nets trailed the Celtics by 30 points at the end of the first quarter — and that was with Irving on the team.
“Hopefully, it doesn’t look like that in the first quarter again,” Vaughn said before the game (it was Celtics, 37-15, at the end of the first quarter Friday night). “It’s a challenge on both ends of the floor. But I think for us, it’s just a mindset of taking advantage of every single possession tonight. So forming habits that way for us going forward will be huge.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
