Nets' upcoming homestand will be a pivotal litmus test
Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn reacts to action on the court during the first half against the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. Credit: AP/Doug McSchooler
INDIANAPOLIS
It was an ugly loss, the one the Nets suffered against the Pacers on Friday. They were sloppy when it mattered, with a second-half swoon that too often felt like a case of a team beating itself. Ben Simmons called it frustrating. Jacque Vaughn, whose sunny personality shouldn’t be confused with complacency, smiled grimly through his disappointment.
The Nets lacked poise, Vaughn said. They lacked discipline. They lacked communication. Which is especially maddening, because despite the 128-117 loss, what they don’t lack is talent.
So at the quarter-season mark, the Nets stand two games under .500, teasing the spectacular while not even making it to mediocrity.
The truth is that this seven-game homestand, even this early in the proceedings, will be a pivotal litmus test for a team whose stars are preaching patience but whose time eventually will run out. Less travel means more cohesion and more practice hours, but it also will be a time of reckoning, and that’s not lost on them.
“I think this is essential for our season just to be able to establish some great habits at home like we’ve been doing,” Kyrie Irving said. “I’m looking forward to just being in front of our fans but, more importantly, being in our home environment and being able to flourish out there.
“It’s not a hard basketball game for us. We have the talent offensively but defensively and offensive boards, they’re still going to be something we bring up day to day, and until we fix it, we’ll still be consistently running into these teams where they’re going to crash the boards every single time and play very physical.
“For us, again, that word poise is going to come up pretty often.”
Unsurprisingly, Irving’s diagnosis is correct.
The Nets were second-to-last in the league in offensive rebounds and second-chance points — a fact that helped doom them against the undermanned 76ers this past week and nearly cost them their game against the injury-plagued Raptors. On Friday, they were victimized by their defense, which allowed 71 second-half points to the Raptors, and their mental lapses against a chippy team playing with pace. They sent the Pacers to the line 38 times and they made 30; the Nets were 8-for-10.
Kevin Durant was called for a technical foul for clapping his hands at a referee and Nic Claxton had an unnecessary flagrant foul on Tyrese Haliburton. They even turned it over on an inbounds pass.
Irving and Ben Simmons, who’s been spectacular of late, spoke plainly about the team’s communication issues, though Durant feels as if the group is jelling.
First, there’s the nitty-gritty of the thing: Vaughn said they’re still figuring out how to structure parts of their game with the pieces they have, and it’s not exactly easy to do. The Nets switch a good bit, and Claxton and Simmons, while doing well of late, can’t be everywhere at once. Their larger guys don’t have the mobility (yet) and their smaller guys sometimes don’t have the size.
“We keep going back to” offensive rebounding, Vaughn said. “We had three clips on the film today to just show the different layers that go into it. We switch as a team and sometimes it’s a part of getting that switch fix to get a bigger guy closer to the rim. That’s a piece of it. Then you have a piece of smalls, instead of thinking ‘I’m going to leak out and go play offense, which is nice and fun, I’ve got to go back and help.’
“Then you’ve got that other piece of — you’ve got Ben and Nic guarding on the perimeter because of the ability to switch and guard Halliburton [on Friday] but then also got to contest and come back.
“It’s layered. We’re trying to keep our guys remembering that we’re pretty good once we get the rebound . . . If we can get just a little better, we’ll be in good shape.”
It’s something of a square-peg, round-hole scenario, but while Vaughn and company figure it out, there’s still the bigger issue of communication. They’ve identified when the breakdowns are happening, Irving said, and now it’s simply about consistency. Unfortunately, intangibles like that sometimes are even harder to fix.
Simmons finally is looking like the Simmons of old and Irving just recently got back from his lengthy suspension, so maybe some of it is really just a matter of time.
But take it from Simmons — the guy who’s been working on his mental health as well as his physical strengths — part of it is mindset, too.
“You’ve gotta take that next step,” he said. “It’s easy for us to lock in for that first half, three quarters, whatever it is. We’ve got to learn how to do that the whole game, from the first to the last guy . . . We’ve got to be willing to be disciplined and sacrifice. It takes four quarters to win a game. We’ve got to be locked in from start to finish and it’s not going to happen overnight.”
No, but for the sake of this season — and for that quickly dwindling dream of a Nets super-team — it would be pretty ideal if it happens during these next seven games.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
