Nets Take Struggles on the Road in Recent Road Trip
In what has been a very trying month of November for the Nets, they finished their most recent road trip 2-3. It’s safe to say this season isn’t starting off the way many thought it would for Brooklyn.
Through their first 13 games, the Nets are 5-8 and still searching for continuity, with everything really. Their lineups, rotations and win percentage. In addition to the Nets’ on court struggles, guys have been in and out of the rotation due to injuries and suspensions.
After adding so many different pieces this offseason to deepen the roster, the expectations for this team immediately rose. Some even said the Nets could get to the Eastern Conference Finals this year.
Granted, when you add guys such as Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, who have three NBA championships and 16 All-Star appearances between the two, you can’t really blame people for thinking the sky is the limit.
Everybody knows this year Brooklyn wouldn’t be able to reach its full potential since Durant is rehabbing his torn Achilles, but nobody thought the start would be this bad.
The Nets have the 19th ranked offense in the league and the 21st ranked defense.
After going 1-3 in the opening month of October, the Nets followed that up by going 4-5 thus far in the month of November. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they went 2-3 on their most recent road trip that included all Western teams, except the Chicago Bulls.
“I think with a new group you’re trying to build a strong foundation and as you’re building sometimes there are chinks and bricks fall out, so it’s not as stable,” said Head Coach Kenny Atkinson. “So right now I think our foundation isn’t strong enough with this new group. It’s there for a little bit, and then it goes away.”
On this recent road trip you definitely saw some of this inconsistency coach Atkinson was talking about.
In the three games that they lost, a couple of the areas that the Nets struggled in were in scoring and assisting. They averaged 106.3 PPG and 21.6 APG, both below their averages.
The three games out of five games that the Nets dropped were to the Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets, all teams above .500. The two teams they beat, the Portland Trailblazers and Chicago Bulls are both teams who are below .500. Therefore one can make the argument that they beat the teams that “they were supposed to beat,” if you believe in that sort of thing.
However that won’t be enough if the Nets have any hopes of not only getting to the playoffs this season, but also being able to win a playoff series.
“It’s frustrating because it’s sort of been the same scenario for a lot of the season where we just haven’t put a full 48 minutes together,” said Joe Harris after the 115-86 blowout loss to the Pacers last night. “Big laps defensively. It’s a lot of stuff where you come in prepared, game plan is there, coaches have you ready and then it’s just sort of a lack of effort and energy on our part, and that’s why it’s frustrating.”
