The Nets aren’t tanking, and they aren’t going to collapse.
That means they better compete, fight and do a better job at both than they have in the past few weeks.
Monday’s 96-88 win over shorthanded Toronto was at least a start.
“We have to have the stamina to be competitive,” admitted interim head coach Kevin Ollie. “I talked to them about that. How’s your stamina?” Not just from a wind direction, but from a competitive standpoint.It has to be present every minute for us to win, but it wasn’t [lately].
“When someone hits you, you don’t just lie down, you hit them back.”
For the size-starved Nets, physicality doesn’t mean matching foot-pound-for-foot-pound strength.
That means cutting backdoors, making sharp passes, and protecting the ball.
And competitive stamina doesn’t mean running on a treadmill or repeating mile after mile at altitude. That means having the mental toughness to play good team basketball in a high-pressure fourth quarter, something they’ve never done.
Or you can play basketball, winning all the way to the end. something they haven’t achieved yet.
Their competitive gas tanks seem to be smoking. That’s concerning for a team that hasn’t maintained its tank or rebuilt it from the ground up.
“It’s just the stamina to keep going for 48 games. That’s what it is. It’s the focus and the mental aspect of just keeping doing it,” Mikal Bridges said.
“I know what they have in there and I know what we have in the locker room,” Oley said after the win. “When they were playing together, [with] A united spirit, we can win. we can win the match. I always want them to understand that. That’s why I’m so passionate about it over and over again. ”
The Nets showed a little bit of Ollie’s passion.
They suffered a season-worst six-game losing streak on Monday. They were 5 1/2 games behind Atlanta for the last play-in spot in the Eastern Conference, but thanks to the Hawks’ comeback from a 30-point deficit against Boston, they were unable to regain the standings.
“You can’t complain about it. You can’t say you should have done this or that. You’re in the middle of it right now. I mean, you’re there right now,” Bridges said. said. “So it obviously sucks that we’re in this situation right now. But all you can do is go up from here.”
But as Nets fans know all too well, things don’t always get better. And they can always get worse.
Brooklyn congregations have had their faith tested during one of the most negative declines in living memory.
Many were outraged by the Post’s report that the team would reject Houston’s offer for Bridges and several first-round picks. A lot of people are panicking about The Athletic and Yahoo right now. Sports outlets claim Jaylen Green was part of that package.
For better or worse, this Brooklyn roster will look similar at the beginning of next season. That means these players are going to have to show some pride in fighting this game all the way.
“Guys, we have to learn something,” said Nick Claxton. “We all have to look at ourselves in the mirror and find ways to be better.”
And importantly, they still have a chance to get something out of this terrible campaign.
Yes, after Atlanta’s comeback, the tragic number (a combination of a Nets loss and a Hawks win that would eliminate them from the play-in) was six. But the Nets can’t worry about that. They can only worry about themselves and showing their heart.
They finally had some performance against the Raptors.
According to Tankasson, Brooklyn has the third-easiest schedule going forward. And around this time a year ago, the Nets were on a five-game losing streak before defeating Miami 129-100 and winning six of their last nine games.
Is that how it turned out? Do they have enough competitiveness left to do so?
It started in Toronto.
