Defense concerns Nets and it has been a liability

ATLANTA — The Nets’ defense was always going to be a work in progress this season. Good moments mingled with lapses and struggles.

After losing three of their last five games, the Nets’ attention has been on their inability to get stops. When Mikal Bridges said Sunday the team needed to get on the same page, it was referring to better communication on defense.

In their last two games, the Nets gave up 122 and 121 points. They entered Wednesday’s game against the Hawks 22nd in defensive rating and last in turnovers forced per game.
It’s not an easy fix but one thing that can change? Being more consistent.

“I think some games, we’ll come out and we'll hold teams close to 100 or under 100 points,” Nic Claxton said at shootaround. “And then some games, teams are kind of having [their] way. So just consistency all around on the defensive end. Being able to string together multiple stops in a row.”

Claxton’s return the last four games has improved the Nets’ rim protection but it hasn’t stopped teams from scoring in other ways. The Nets’ latest issue is closing out first halves and it’s put them in holes they couldn’t climb out of.

They’ve also allowed opposing players to go off at the wrong time. Against Miami, it was Jimmy Butler scoring 18 points in the third quarter and letting Duncan Robinson tie his season high with 26 points in last week’s loss.

With the 76ers, it was allowing Tyrese Maxey to score nine points in the third quarter after allowing 11 points at halftime. Maxey made four three-pointers in the second half and finished with six in Sunday’s 121-99 win over the Nets.

Bridges believe it’s part of the team still learning coach Jacque Vaughn’s defensive schemes. Whether it’s not taking risks to get steals or being aggressive on players entering the paint, they’re not as effective locking teams down as they want to be.

“We’ve just got to trust our defense and know what we're doing. Everybody's got to be on a string,” Bridges said. “I mean, it's new for everybody. So we’ve just got to all be connected and just help each other out.”
If there’s a target number for the Nets’ defense, it’s 115 points. Entering Wednesday, the Nets are 5-1 holding teams under that total and 1-6 when allowing teams to reach 115 or more points.

It’s not the 100-point goal that Dorian Finney-Smith wanted before the season but it’s a good indicator of what the Nets need to do. But for now, there needs to be more trust on the court in understanding who’s got what assignment and what they must do to keep consistent defensive pressure on opponents.

"Understand what [opponents] want to do and how we can best take that away. I mean, that's what a big part of the league is about,” Cam Johnson said. “And then be able to spin that into transition opportunities and buckets on our own end.”

It goes back to Vaughn wanting the Nets to take more risks to get steals. But it’s up to the players to figure it out because as Bridges noted, the coaches can teach and explain concepts all the want.

The players just to have execute better, especially when defense is what they hope to hang their hat on.

“I think just knowing what we're doing as a team, like, us players out there knowing where each other are going to be at,” Bridges said. “The coaches have it out there for us and we’ve just got to execute it at a high level, and just even if stuff goes wrong, just having that next guy step up for you.”

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.