There are nights like this for any team with a great championship ambition, nights in which the most basic elements of the competition are shown. Lately, the nets seemed to be bubbling up. They seemed disinterested. It’s a long season. Poor basketball spasms are inevitable. But if it equals your reputation, these things have to happen.
They had lost three games in a row and had looked pretty horrible in doing so. There was a terrible loss in Detroit for a Pistons team that some nights seems to be already playing the rope. They have been the worst ranked strikers: at the top of their game against fantastic teams, going down to the garbage level of the smaller teams.
That was the message Steve Nash sent to his players before they took the Pacers to the Barclays Center Wednesday night in their last game before heading west for what should be a five-game trip. very interesting:
“You can’t have fun playing.”
Thus, the Nets had fun Wednesday night, no doubt during a first half in which they not only hit the Pacers, but also erased any trace of the game’s imagination. There was a 32-5 run that closed out the half that didn’t really end until two minutes left in the third quarter, the splendor had widened to 39-8 and the score was a ridiculous 69-33.
It plays so well over an extended period of time, it almost doesn’t matter that the Nets spend most of the second half reclining in the seats, allowing the Pacers to beat them 61-35 the rest of the way. A victory is a victory. This was 104-94. This one sent them on their way joyfully feeling much better about themselves.
And when they make their way through San Francisco, Sacramento, Phoenix and Los Angeles (for an interesting step with the Lakers and Clippers) they’ll reunite with Kevin Durant, be whole, and be able to get back to work to maximize the fun.
“You could tell from the beginning that they were closed,” Nash said, “and when they’re closed, you could see what they’re capable of.”
It certainly helped the Pacers play the first half as a team that had presented itself to each other during the first jump ball, but all the credit to the Nets, who were losing Durant and not necessarily receiving A-plus offensive efforts. of the other two-thirds of his fantastic troika, Kyrie Irving and James Harden (though combined they were a stunning 27-on-27 from the line).
No, during the stretch that turned the game upside down they played the way they always play when the times are good: with an effortless softness that gives the basketball purist everyone. Even without Durant, there are so many basketball skills on display when things move, this is probably what infuriates him when things go the other way.
The Nets, of course, have had a couple of breaks. One is natural: the length of the NBA season, even a ten-game truncation, will allow them plenty of time to figure things out. There are still just under two-thirds of a season left.
The other is a little more surprising: despite the Nets ’15-12 pedestrian record, they remain solidly in third place in an Eastern Conference, where only the 76ers (18-7) and Bucks (16-8) ) entered Wednesday’s game at the Suns) had jumped to a better-than-average start to the season.
“The communication was there, the effort was there, we didn’t play defense like that all season,” said Joe Harris, who scored 17 points. “It’s definitely good to see us take a step in the right direction.”
The Nets understand that perfectly, of course. They know how much they are subjected to thorough scrutiny and seem to welcome it, even if it means periodically acknowledging their shortcomings. Jeff Green spoke with his teammates after Tuesday’s mess in Motor City and, while it may not have been a complete sermon on Jesus, he touched on a common nerve: a good team that doesn’t play well is a wear thing to see.
But one that yes?
For a long stretch on Wednesday night, we saw what it looked like. Choose the adjective: exciting, impressive and stimulating. As the Networks take their show to the road, they hope to be able to add a few more to this pile and not to the other, which includes: Frustrating. Confusing. Exasperating.