Brooklyn Nets struggle with challenging early schedule
NBA team schedules are not dissected and discussed as much as NFL schedules are, but for the Brooklyn Nets, facing some of the league’s best teams early has affected them getting off to a 3-4 start going into last night’s game at the Barclays Center against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday afternoon.
The Nets’ wins—three straight from October 30 through last Friday, all on the road—were versus the Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, and Chicago Bulls, each under .500 when the league’s slate of games tipped off yesterday. Brooklyn lost their road opener to the Dallas Mavericks.
Their home schedule has been more difficult. Their three-game home stand, which concluded last night, matched the Nets against arguably the two best teams in the conference: the 2022 NBA Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics and the 2021 NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks. Brooklyn was competitive in both contests, but lost to Boston 124-114 and Milwaukee on Monday night, 129-125.
Boston has added former New York Knicks forward Kristaps Porzingis and former Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday, while Milwaukee now has seven-time NBA All-Star guard Damian Lillard.
The Nets fought hard against Milwaukee, which encouraged their head coach.
“I think that’s something we can take away from today…the fact of being extremely resilient, no matter what happens throughout the course of the game,” said Jacque Vaughn. “I thought our group (was) pretty much locked into the game plan.”
Nets starting center Nic Claxtom missed his fifth consecutive game on Monday with a high ankle sprain and was expected to be out again last night. He has only played 28 minutes, all in Game 1 at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers more than two weeks ago.
After two games in which he scored under 20 points, versus Miami and Chicago, Nets guard Cam Thomas continued his phenomenal scoring, putting up 27 points against Boston and exploding for 45 against Milwaukee.
“The interesting part is (Cam) and I watched film today and it was defense,” Vaughn said of his coaching of the talented scorer. “There was no offense on that thing…so for him, just continue to have the habits that he’s had, whether that’s boxing out, whether that’s knowing who he’s guarding, helping us rebound—all those things he’s done at a high level.
“And you saw tonight,” Vaughn continued, “him (scoring) from all levels on the floor, but also being able to distribute the basketball. That’s the next phase of this thing. He’s going to still have attention and what he does with the attention he’s shown, he can make shots. I think his teammates trust him. He knows I trust him. He’ll continue to grow…the last shot was for him, and he’ll probably see another one.”
Brooklyn is in Boston on Friday to face Jayson Tatum and the Celtics for the second time in seven days, before returning home the following night to host the Washington Wizards. The Orlando Magic visit Barclays Center on Tuesday.
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