ORLANDO, Fla. — The Nets had a rare day off under the Florida sun, doing yoga as a team. Couples rested, some watched their children play in the pool, and some tried to go to Disney World for the first time.
Everyone can find time to look in the mirror, and in this case the mirror should be a game film. And I hope that what you see will confirm your reality.
More than a plan or a system, I hope they have the self-awareness to understand that their inconsistent results are due to their own highly inconsistent efforts.
“Everyone just has to look at themselves in the mirror and bring it,” center Nick Claxton admitted. “That’s on everyone. That’s our job. It’s not the coaches’ fault. It’s the players’ responsibility to go out and bring it every night, regardless of what’s going on outside.”
What’s happening is injuries, changes in lineups, even changes in coaches on the hot seat, and this started last season and it’s still going on.
From Steve Nash to Jacque Vaughn to now interim head coach Kevin O’Ree, the Nets’ efforts have been up and down like a roller coaster at a small neighborhood amusement park.
Heading into Saturday’s game against Indiana, these Nets have significantly underperformed this season. That led to Vaughn being fired during the All-Star break, and while O’Ree is doing better, his ups and downs may be more pronounced.
Say what you want about the Nets’ coaching decisions and just wait for a thorough league-wide coaching investigation to take place this summer. Yes, the words of former NBA champion and Spurs tree grower Mike Budenholzer make perfect sense. The fact is, for the rest of this season, the Nets need to look inward, not outward.
“We just have to find a way to win,” Dorian Finney-Smith said. “Personally, I have to be more consistent in everything. I’ve had an up-and-down season. Defensively I’ve been good, but shooting-wise I’ve been up and down.
“So, first of all, we all have to look in the mirror and say, ‘We all have to play better individually.'” So we have to put all of this together and win. There is. Is he only 16, 17 left? We all know what we’re going to do. We’re trying to capture Atlanta. Therefore, the most important thing is to try to find a way to win. ”
Despite getting a two-game sweep from Atlanta two weeks ago, the Nets still trailed the Hawks by 3 1/2 games (4 1/2 games) heading into Friday’s game against Utah.
The fact that they beat Atlanta by a total of 39 points in those two wins, and then went on to lose in the repechage games to Memphis, Detroit, and Charlotte, speaks to their unreliability with the Pacers this time around. There is.
The Nets come out early, take shots, and play hard. However, if it hits your mouth, it will break. That’s not a good quality.
Yes, O’Ree spent much of Friday’s practice tinkering with defensive verbiage and tweaking pick-and-roll coverage. But he told them straight up that tinkering and tweaking wasn’t going to beat the Pacers or get them back for the rest of the season.
“Our margin of error is small, so we have to make shots and we can’t do that.” [deciding] Our energy and effort on defense,” Oley said. “We’ve got to earn it in Indiana, that’s it. It’s the next game, the next play.
“We have to get our players to stand up, look in the mirror and get better, speak up and be leaders, be understanding when they go through periods of not being able to shoot, but still believe and talk to each other. ” , you can’t mute it at times like that. And that was my message. ”
The message was that they were not going to solve this problem by conspiracies, but by looking in the mirror. And then fix what they see.
