Tough defense could fuel turnaround for new-look Nets
The Nets' Mikal Bridges reacts during the second half of the team's NBA game against the Celtics, Friday in Boston. Credit: AP/Michael Dwyer
BOSTON — Maybe the shock of it all is starting to wear off.
Maybe the absolute weirdness of going from a star-studded team with title aspirations to a transitional mishmash of players who would have to be unfathomably lucky to get out of the first round of the playoffs is starting to wear off.
Because for the first time since Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant were traded away, the Nets are playing like a team that believes in themselves.
It took six games and a quarter, but the high-level defense we were all told we were getting when the team brought in Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith finally appeared. And it showed up with a vengeance, digging the Nets out of a 28-point hole for a win over an elite Celtics team.
If there is a turning point for this new group of players, a stretch that will be later point to as having saved them from dropping like a dead rock out of the playoff picture, it will be a point early in the second quarter Friday night.
“We looked at each other and said, ‘We’re not going out this way,’” Johnson said after the game. “It kind of brought us together.”
The Nets held the Celtics, a team that averaged 59 points a half to just 41 points in the third and fourth quarters. The 28-point comeback marked the largest comeback in an NBA game this season and is tied for the largest comeback win in franchise history. The other two were a 2019 win over the Kings in Sacramento and a comeback rally against the Knicks in 2022.
The performance was so stunning, so unexpected that Celtics fans booed their players in the final minutes of the game. Heading into the game, the Nets had gone 1-6 in the post-KD/Kyrie era and were fresh off an embarrassing 142-118 loss to the Knicks. This was a game no one but the Nets thought they could win.
Of course, whether or not the game is considered a turning point could be determined over the next couple of weeks as the Nets host Charlotte on Sunday before heading on a five-game road trip that includes games at Milwaukee and Denver.
“I think that’s the most important thing is we still have work to be done,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. “ We’ve shown glimpses of what we can be as a team. And tonight, to put it together and get a win and get rewarded for it is pretty impressive. I do think guys need momentum, confidence, belief, proof, evidence, all of the above. Gave us some evidence tonight that when we’re locked in, we can be pretty good.”
Bridges discovers scoring potential
Mikal Bridges had scored 30 points just twice in his career before being traded. Now, with the 38 points he scored against the Celtics Friday, he has scored more than 30 in three of his last six games as a Net.
Bridges, who was known primarily as defensive specialist when he was traded to the Nets, ignited their comeback when he scored 15 points in the second quarter. It was a performance so clutch that it surprised some of his teammates.
“I didn’t know he had those 30 balls in him,” Dorian Finney-Smith said. “I knew he was good from watching and playing against him, but I’m just happy he got a chance to show everybody what’s in his bag.”
Finney-Smith shakes off struggles
Perhaps no player had struggled more after being traded to the Nets than Finney-Smith.
Entering the Celtics game, he was averaging just 6.1 points while shooting a career-low 34.5% overall and 20.6% from three. Vaughn was beginning to get questioned about leaving him in the starting lineup, and Finney-Smith’s teammates could see he was getting frustrated.
“My boy, Do? Man, he was over getting in his head, getting upset about not making shots,” Bridges said. “I just told him it’s going to come. I played against him in Dallas and in the playoffs hit eight threes. Like, I know how [he is] shooting the ball, and I’m just like, ‘Just keep shooting. You’re going to find it.’”
Against the Celtics, Finney-Smith had easily his best game as a Net, scoring 17 points, grabbing nine rebounds, handing out three assists and blocked two shots.
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.
