ORLANDO, Fla. — The Nets spent a rare off day in the Florida sun doing yoga as a team. A couple rested, some watched their kids splash around in the pool, and others tried to go to Disney World for the first time.
One hopes every single one found time to look in the mirror — and in this case, the mirror should be the game film — and got a reality check by what they saw.
One hopes they have the self-awareness to realize — more so than schemes or systems — their inconsistent results are about their own wildly inconsistent effort.
“Everybody just has to look themself in the mirror and bring it,” center Nic Claxton admitted. “It’s on everybody. It’s our job; it’s not on the coaches. It’s on the players for us to go out and just bring it every single night, and regardless of what’s going on out there.”
What’s gone on is injuries, a revolving lineup and even revolving coaches on the hot seat, something that started last season but hasn’t ever changed.
From Steve Nash to Jacque Vaughn to, now, interim head coach Kevin Ollie, the Nets’ effort has been up and down like a roller coaster at the little amusement park nearby.
Coming into Saturday’s game at Indiana, these Nets have vastly underachieved this season. That got Vaughn fired over the All-Star break, and while Ollie has a better record, the highs and lows may be even more glaring.
Magic guard Cole Anthony (50) drives to the basket against Brooklyn Nets guard Cam Thomas (24) in the fourth quarter. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con Say what you want about the Nets’ coaching decisions, and wait all you want for a thorough league-wide coaching search this upcoming summer — yes, former NBA champion and Spurs tree product Mike Budenholzer makes perfect sense — the fact is that, for the rest of this season, the Nets need to look inward, not outward.
“We’ve just got to find ways to win,” Dorian Finney-Smith said. “Personally, I’ve got to be more consistent with everything. I’ve been having an up-and-down season. I’ve been good on the defensive end, but my shooting, I’ve been up and down.
“So first of all, everybody’s got to look in the mirror and go ‘We’ve all got to play better individually, too.’ So we’ve just got to put all those things together and try to get a win. We’ve only got what, 16, 17 left? We all know what we’re trying to do: We’re trying to catch Atlanta. So that’s the most important thing, is trying to figure out ways to get wins.”
Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie gestures in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. AP Despite sweeping a pair of games from Atlanta two weeks ago, the Nets still trailed by 3 ½ games — four in the loss column — before the Hawks’ tilt Friday in Utah.
The fact they drilled Atlanta by a combined 39 points in those two wins, then proceeded to lose games to Memphis, Detroit and Charlotte — stragglers all — tells you everything to know about their unreliability coming into this Pacers tilt.
When the Nets come out and hit shots early, they play hard. When they get hit in the mouth, though, they fold. It’s not a good trait.
Yes, Ollie spent much of Friday’s practice tinkering with their defensive verbiage and tweaking their pick-and-roll coverage. But he bluntly told them the tinkering and tweaking aren’t what’s going to beat the Pacers or salvage what’s left of their season.
“Our margin of error is small, and we have to make shots, but that can’t be [deciding] our energy and effort on defense,” Ollie said. “We’ve got to get one in Indiana, and that’s what it is. It’s the next game, next play.
“We’ve got to have guys stand up and look in the mirror and get better, and be vocal leaders and understand when we go through a period where we’re not making shots, we still believe and we’re talking to each other, and we can’t go mute in those times. And that was my message.”
The message was they’re not going to solve this through machinations, but by looking in the mirror. And fixing what they see.
