The Nets have surprised us all season with their great offense. But their woeful defense is on the other end of the spectrum, and they're hitting rock bottom.
The team ranks last in the NBA in field goal defense and field goal efficiency, and in the bottom five in many other metrics. They all indicate the same thing. Even though the Nets are finally healthy, they still struggle on that end of the court, one of the worst in the league and only getting worse over the past week.
“All the big bodies were in it. [Friday] Still did a terrible job of protecting the rim. So that's what we need to understand. We all have to be on the same page,” admitted center Nick Claxton. “We need to protect the rim better. My blocking is down this year. But it's on everyone, just being on the same page with our defense. Our defense isn't good.”
That's an understatement. It has gone beyond bad and has progressed to an unacceptable level.
The Nets shot 48.9 percent and had a field goal percentage of 56.8 percent, both worst in the league.
They are second-worst in defensive rebounds (29.7) and blocks (3.9), and their rim protection has been their Achilles heel. He wasn't good at communicating, and in an attempt to compensate for that, he gave up on open 3-point looks.
Previous injuries to Claxton and reserve Dayron Sharp forced point guard Ben Simmons to center, and power forwards Dorian Finney-Smith and Noah Clowney were also in and out, making it a big deal. It was easy to blame the lack of physicality. Lineup.
But the Nets are finally getting healthy. Their defense hasn't gotten better yet. In fact, the situation is getting worse.
On Friday at Memphis, he rotated to protect the paint and gave up a corner 3. They lost to the Grizzlies 135-119.
“We didn't deserve a better result. If we played defense, we conceded 135 points and we didn't deserve to win, that's for sure,” coach Jordi Fernandez said.
“That's no excuse. We've got our guys back, you know, Nick and Day-Day are back,” Finney-Smith said. “We need a junior guy to help us out. But they're good at cutting in the corners and they leave that guy on the wing on the island, so when he goes to help it's a corner three or a back cut. So It's tough to defend. But when you score 135 points, you can't beat anyone. That's what it is.
“And we actually scored a lot of points. [Friday]. So if we can keep them close to 100 points like we did the first time we played here, we'll have a better chance. But yeah, I need to do something about that paint. That as a group, especially that second group, played five out and that just spread us out a little bit. We have to communicate better behind the scenes. ”
The Nets' communication in last weekend's game against the Bucks was atrocious down the stretch, allowing 57.4 percent shooting and 48.4 percent from 3-point range.
He scored 52.5 points and 47.2 points in Friday's game against the Grizzlies, all while being abused and roughed up by Ja Morant.
“If you don't want him to bark at you, you've got to go out and fight,” Finney-Smith shrugged. “Like Coach said, we can't just fight with words. We have to go out there and hit them. And they were our first attackers. They were our first attackers in the paint. He was alive and getting offensive rebounds. So we have to do a better job as a team.”
The Nets have allowed 68 points in the paint, which has been an issue.
They allow the fourth-most baskets in the restricted area (18.6) and the supersized Cavaliers, featuring Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, come to town on Monday.
