From behind the YES Network microphone, Jacque Vaughn smiled.
For most of Saturday’s 136-121 victory over the 76ers, the Nets’ defense continued to reverse an alarming early-season trend.
There were also individual breakthroughs such as Cam Thomas.
The team has also made strides in what Vaughn calls “corporate knowledge.”
And it all adds up to give the Nets the NBA’s eighth-highest defensive rating (114.0) since their Jan. 5 win at Wells Fargo Center. The Nets allowed 82 points in the first 36 minutes, but Philadelphia’s outburst in the fourth quarter gave up 39 points.
“I wish we hadn’t given up those three points at the end of the game,” Bourne joked at the head coach’s press conference. “That would have contributed to our defensive rating. That’s all I was thinking there.”
The improved defense has yet to translate into consistent wins, as the Nets (20-28) went 5-8 during this span.
Three of those wins have come in the last four games.
But what was expected to emerge as a strength, until the Nets were constantly reminded of how porous the defense was after last year’s trade deadline and how they hadn’t found a solution to fix it. I showed you a glimpse.
“We were trying to figure out how to turn people around,” Vaughn said. “We’re actually pulling away more talent than we were when we were looking to pull people away. So we’re being proactive, understanding what we’re doing and making the right decisions. It’s interesting to see how being in position can create handoffs.”
Through the first 35 games, the Nets had a defensive rating of 117.1, ranking 23rd in the league, and the problems were evident during a season-altering spiral of 17 losses in 21 games.
Mikal Bridges said in December that they weren’t “guarding across the board,” and that was just a small part of pick-and-roll coverage, rotations, and everything else.
This was supposed to be a campaign where the Nets added different layers to their unit.
Bourne hinted at such a change before the season to The Post’s Brian Lewis, where he referred to himself as a “defensive coordinator with a headset on,” allowing players to play in different schemes depending on the opponent. He said he could direct everyone to a different structure. Some possessions later.
If all goes well, the Nets will still stay in sync.
It took a while. There were growing pains as switching and drop coverage became more of a mix than just switching.
However, as the calendar turned to January, the Nets were averaging 8.6 steals and 14.2 turnovers per game, up from 6.2 steals and 11.6 steals at the start of the season.
And for much of Saturday’s game, that progress was realized again. They recorded three steals and forced five turnovers.
They did a variety of coverage on 76ers star Tyrese Maxey, especially Joel Embiid and the other three starters, impressing Bourne with his ability to run everything seamlessly from practice.
“You’re trying to do simple actions like pick-and-rolls, but trapping and doing different things like that made it difficult,” Maxey told reporters after scoring 23 points. he said.
As their quest for a postseason berth began to slip away, the Nets laid the foundation to turn their season around.
Bourne, along with Thomas, continued to “promote” promising signs of personal growth, including a clip before halftime of Saturday’s game that featured a strong boxout after a shot.
Thomas’ defensive rating has improved to 110.9 over the last 13 games after ballooning to 120.2 in his first 26 games.
His development has made the Nets a better team, Vaughn said.
Collective growth also helped.
They still need more wins to salvage their season, and an offense that is starting to hit its stride could help, but a blueprint for the defense has developed over the past month, especially over the past four games.
“We have players who can play defense,” Ben Simmons said. “I think it’s a collective thing and we can’t get too wrapped up in the offensive part. I think if we play defense and get the stops, it’s easy on offense.”
