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The Nets returned home Monday after the team’s first 5-0 trip west in team history, on a six-game winning streak.
It’s a rebound for the Nets, who hit rock bottom with a humiliating loss to Detroit. From that point on – at just 14-12 and mired in a losing three-game slippage – they became the hottest team in basketball and a favorite to reach the NBA Finals. How did it happen?
They determine defense, especially change.
Brooklyn has doubled that down even more since her trade for James Harden.
Prior to Harden’s arrival, the Nets were switching choices 20% of the time, 3% above the league average. But in its first 14 games after the trade, that climbed to 33%, which would lead the league this season according to the Second Spectrum tracking. Coming into Sunday’s win at the Clippers, they had traded 41% of the picks on the perfect western swing.
In many ways, this makes sense. Only three tracking-era teams (since 2013-14) have changed by 40% – the Rockets for the past three years, led by Harden and coached by current Nets assistant Mike D’Antoni.
“They go from 1 to 5 when Jeff Green is at 5, and they go from 1 to 4 and give up when DeAndre [Jordan] is in the game. But the game you think they wouldn’t change, they change, ”Clippers coach Ty Lue said. “It makes teams stagnant.”
Steve Nash grows as a coach
Nash, who had never served as an assistant, learned on the job.
He kept an optimistic tone but knew when to join his team following the loss to Detroit. Despite goalie Bruce Brown’s shortcomings as a shooter, Nash found creative ways to use him as a 6-foot-2 cutter, screener, and pseudo-cross.
And Nash’s adjustments in Phoenix were impressive. He’s deployed a zone defense he hasn’t shown all season to help calm the Suns. Then he took Jordan out of his usual fall blanket and changed him for the first time this season – dropping them from 1 to 5 and daring Deandre Ayton to punish them. It helped them recover from a 21-point halftime deficit, the biggest deficit in team history.
The nets have become quite tough
The Nets didn’t have to be the Bad Boy Pistons; they just couldn’t afford to be historically bad, and that’s exactly what they had done.
“It’s a non-negotiable step in any team’s aspirations to have this resolve, this robustness and this connectivity,” Nash said.
In the first 13 games after the Harden trade, the Nets were just 7-6 and were last in the NBA in defensive standings. But in the winning streak, they showed more courage to that end, up to 21st. That was enough to see their net odds drop from 18th in the league to fourth.
“Night and day since my arrival here. We’re playing hard now, and we’re playing smart, ”said Harden. “The most I’m proud of is our state of mind in every game, in every possession. We don’t take our opponent lightly at all, no matter who we play. It’s the same goal. It’s the same state of mind. “
Kevin Durant (left hamstring strain) is out on Tuesday. Green (right shoulder contusion) and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (right hip contusion) are questionable, while Tyler Johnson (left adductor strain) and Iman Shumpert (left hamstring strain) are likely.
Harden was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the second time since joining the Nets.
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