It's not even an All-Star break yet, and the net has already won more games than they were predicted for every season.
Get used to it, they say.
This tanking team is enjoying the victory, focusing on play-in, not lottery tickets.
The Nets beat the 76ers 100-96 with 16,133 at Barclays Center, earning their sixth victory in their final seven games.
And they don't care how much it bothers the crowd that it's pro-tank.
“We don't care, we don't care what they're saying about it,” Cam Johnson said. “Fifteen or eighteen guys on his team have jobs to do. Our job is not to try and get draft picks. Our job is simply to win a basketball game. The basketball game is right in front of us. We don't mind all the other noise.
“If that's what they think, they're not really fans. They don't want us to succeed. Are you going to ask our own players to lose? We're We're not going to do that. We're there to compete and win all the games.”
This victory drew the net (20-34) 1½ games behind 10th Chicago in the east for the final play-in spot.
More related to their Tank Happy fans, they saw them fall into the 3½ game in the odds of the lottery to 5th Toronto.
They are behind No. 6 in Charlotte's No. 4, and are 6½ of the top three places where top pick opportunities are flattened.
In short, Cooper Flags look more like a mirage than a target.
But these players don't care. The play-in was within touch distance, not after D'Angelo Russell (22 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) and Nic Claxton (13 points, 11 rebounds, 5 blocks).
“Yeah, definitely. We want to go there, we want to get to the playoffs,” Claxton said. “We don't care. We're competitors. We spent so much time. We've been crushing for the rest of our lives to get to this stage. We've had so much to do with draft picks. We didn't care. We didn't care.
“We're not naive about it. The fans are upset when we win. That's exactly what it is. It's part of it. But we work so hard every day, so we lose the game. We can't. We'll go out and make sure we win all the games. But I understand where the fans are coming from. I don't want them to lose us this year and everything I feel the reason I'm in. I feel them. But we want to win.”
Brooklyn took the Six 43.2 percent and 8/33 from Deep, winning 50-38 with Glass.
Certainly, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey didn't play, but the Nets were plagued by just two points with a seventh of fire on Paul George.
Russell helped Brooklyn build an 11-point lead.
And even after falling behind at 58-57 on Quentin Grimes 3, there was an answer on the net as there was 8:30 left in the quarter.
The net tightened the defensive screws on a 12-2 run.
They held 8-1 shootings from six people on three turnovers and ordered.
Claxton had consecutive blocks, leading to a fast break with Trendon Watford (18 points, 3 steel) and 67-60 edges.
Later, the center layup made it 69-60, and it was 3:47 at 3:47.
The net padded the lead to 15 points in the fourth before the nervous ending.
Kelly Oubre Jr. and Grimes shared Game High honors with 30 Sixers.
It was a great turnaround for the net.
On December 27th, Brooklyn was 14-33. In the half-match behind Charlotte, he was only two separates from the top three in the lottery odds.
Play-in wasn't even possible at the time.
But things have changed. The net exceeds expected winning totals before reaching an All-Star break.
“We were amortized early,” Johnson said. “Our expected total of victory was lower than what we are currently in the break. That doesn't mean we achieved anything, but that's what we're heading in the right direction. It means there is.”
