Nine hours before tipoff against the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks, Bruce Brown said he is “really confident” in the Nets’ ability to flip the switch entering the playoffs. When asked why, Brown responded plainly.
“Just because we’re a really good team,” he said.
The average NBA team can’t coast their way through the regular season then put the pedal to the metal when the playoffs come around. The Nets, however, are not your average team.
They are led by two future Hall of Famers — two of the most unstoppable scorers in NBA history. Their midseason blockbuster trade provided balance to an otherwise lopsided roster. As a result, their regular season record is far from indicative of the talent at head coach Steve Nash’s disposal.
That’s why they can flip that switch, as they’ve done winning eight of their last 12 games, including a valiant effort that fell just short in Thursday’s 120-119 overtime loss to the defending champions. That loss came one game after the Nets gave up 123 points and had to come back from down double digits to beat the conference’s second-worst-seeded Detroit Pistons.
“There are gonna be games where you’re on top of your game, and there are gonna be others where your effort is gonna have to get you the win, rather than your talent,” Irving said Thursday. “I think for us moving forward, it’s about thinking about the game on a high level, understanding our rotations, and then being there for each other on the offensive and defensive end.
“So we’re making changes and adjustments on the fly, but it’s just an ongoing day-to-day process for us to get ready for the playoffs and utilizing these games, whether it be Detroit or Milwaukee, it can’t really matter to us. Same resolve.”
The Nets are well on the cusp of making NBA history — if they can stay healthy and finally play the ace in their back pocket. They can become the lowest seed to ever win an NBA title.
This is still the same team that entered the season championship favorites, even if James Harden is no longer on the roster and they’re fighting for play-in tournament position.
The championship aspirations were formed before Harden was ever a thought and continue to extend beyond his memory.
Brown’s response, and the Nets’ result against the defending champions on Thursday night, proves the Nets are in a different class than most of their NBA counterparts. They are legitimate championship contenders loitering at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.
They’re only at the bottom of the standings because of a freak accident: Brown landed into Durant’s knee in a Jan. 15 matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans. Durant suffered a sprained MCL and missed a one and a half months of action. The Nets never rebounded, not with Kyrie Irving then eligible only to play road games, a disgruntled Harden plotting his way to Philadelphia and with the glaring lack of continuity on a roster attempting to integrate 10 new players acquired over the summer.
“I wasn’t on the team that lost 11 in a row, and that kind of set the season back for them, seeding wise,” said Seth Curry, one of the three players to arrive in Brooklyn via the Harden deal. “So the team was kind of revamped. Got Kyrie back, myself, [Andre Drummond], hopefully [Ben Simmons] down the stretch. So it feels like it’s a new team, and our seeding isn’t really indicative of the type of team that we are and the type of basketball we’ve been playing over the past month.
“So seeding doesn’t matter. It’s about matchups, especially in this Eastern Conference.”
No team has ever defied the odds the Nets must in order to walk away champions.
The 1995 Houston Rockets are the lowest-seeded team to ever win an NBA title. Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler finished the season sixth in the Western Conference before blowing through each of the first three rounds of the playoffs and sweeping the Orlando Magic to win an NBA championship.
The 2022 Nets and those ‘95 Rockets have one thing in common: winning despite a lack of continuity.
Durant missed a chunk of time with the MCL injury; Irving’s unvaccinated status rendered him ineligible altogether until mid-January and he was only recently allowed to play at Barclays Center again; and the Nets dealt Harden at the trade deadline. The Rockets didn’t have Drexler until midway through the season, acquiring him in a deal headlined by Otis Thorpe. He played in only 35 games. Irving will have played 29 by the end of the season.
And like those Rockets, that doesn’t matter. It’s the talent that sets the Nets apart from the other seventh and eighth seeds in NBA history. Even if that talent doesn’t have much time to play as a unit.
Talent makes a really good team, and a really good team can turn the switch on. The Nets already have.
That’s why they can defy the odds and make NBA history
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