Nets' sole focus is winning their regular-season finale
Nets head coach Steve Nash looks on in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Houston Rockets at Barclays Center on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Did you ever think at the start of this season that Nets fans would be excited about the prospect of having a good chance to make the playoffs?
That, however, is exactly how it stands entering Sunday’s final regular-season game against Indiana. If the Nets beat the Pacers at Barclays Center — and given the stakes and the fact that the Pacers have the third-worst record in the Eastern Conference, it’s hard to imagine they won’t — they will clinch the coveted No. 7 spot in the play-in tournament.
That would give them two chances to record the one play-in victory they need to make the playoffs.
The first chance will come Tuesday and, though nothing is set in stone because the Hawks, Hornets, Cavaliers and Nets are separated by only a game, it likely will be against Cleveland, the team the Nets beat, 118-107, on Friday night. If they win Tuesday, they will claim the No. 7 seed, which means they will open the playoffs next weekend in Milwaukee (most likely) or in Boston.
If the Nets beat Indiana but lose Tuesday’s play-in game, they will face the winner of the 9-10 play-in game — which most likely will be between the Hawks and the Hornets — on Friday.
The scenarios are so plentiful right now that coach Steve Nash finds it best not to think about it too much.
“I think we’re so focused on trying to improve in a short period of time and get better every day that we’re not in a position to start worrying about who, what, when,” Nash said after the win over Cleveland. “We’ve just got to try to win the game on Sunday and the play-in on Tuesday.”
There has been a lot of talk that the Nets are the low seed that high seeds least want to play in the playoffs. Kevin Durant isn’t buying into that or the notion that teams are jockeying around to try to avoid them.
“I don’t believe teams are doing that,” he said. “I think a lot of teams are just trying to make sure their guys are healthy going into the playoffs. I don’t think they’re even worried about us, to be honest, so we just focus on what we do. And no matter what happens, we just play our game.”
Notes & quotes: Durant is averaging 30.55 points per game and needs 27 in the season finale to average 30 for the season. That would make him the first Nets player to reach that milestone. It also would make him the second-highest scorer in the league behind the 76ers’ Joel Embiid, who is averaging 30.4 in 67 games. Durant, however, will fall just short of playing the minimum number of games to qualify for the scoring title race because injuries caused him to miss a chunk of games.
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.
