The Nets came home on Monday, part of a league-high-six-game winning streak after the first 5–0 Western trip in team history.
This is a bounce-back for the Nets, who exited Detroit with a humiliating loss. Since that point – just 14–12 and three matches losing the skid – they have become the hottest team in basketball and are favorites to reach the NBA Finals. How did this happen?
TEspecially finding out about rescue by switching.
Brooklyn has doubled on him even more since he traded for James Harden.
Before Harden arrived, the Nets were switching 20 percent of the time, 3 percent above the league average. But after its first 14 matches, the trade, which had reached 33 percent, would lead this season according to Second Spectrum Tracking. Going into Sunday’s win at the Clippers, he scored 41 percent on the perfect Western swing.
In many ways, it makes sense. Only three teams have switched more than 40 percent in the tracking era (since 2013-14) – the Rockets in the last three years, led by Harden and coached by current net assistant Mike D’Antoni.
“They switch 1-through-5 when Jeff Green is on 5, and they switch 1-through-4 and leave DeAndre [Jordan] Is in the game. But the matchups that you think they won’t switch, they switch. “It makes teams stable.”
Steve Nash growing up as a coach
Nash, who never worked as an assistant, is learning work.
He kept an upbeat tone, but knew when to come into his team in the wake of the loss in Detroit. Despite guard Bruce Brown’s shortcomings as a shooter, Nash found creative ways to use him as a cutter, screener, and 6-foot-2 pseudo-center.
And Nash’s adjustments at Phoenix were impressive. He deployed a zone defense in which he did not show all weather to help cool the sun. Then he took Jordan out of his usual drop coverage and switched him all season for the first time – letting him switch 1-through-5, and daring DeAndre Ayton to punish him. This allowed him to rally from a 21 point interruption deficit, the biggest loss in the team’s history.
Nets got tough
The Nets were not to be the Bad Boy Pistons; They just can’t afford to be historically screwed, which is exactly how they are performing.
“This is a baseless step in any team’s aspirations, with determination and perseverance and connectivity,” Nash said.
In the first 13 matches following the Harden trade, the Nets were just 7-6 and last in the NBA in defensive ratings. But in the winning streak he has shown more luck at that end until 21st. This is enough to see his net rating from fourth in the league to 18th.
“Night and day when I first came here. We are playing hard now, and we are playing smart, ”Harden said. “I am most proud of our mentality every game, every right. We do not take our opponent lightly, no matter what we are playing. It is the same goal. It is the same mindset. “
Kevin Durant (left hamstring strain) is out Tuesday. Green (right shoulder fusion) and Timothee Luvavu-Cabrot (right hip contusion) are suspect, while Tyler Johnson (left adductor tightness) and Eman Schumper (left hamstring stretch) are probable.
Harden was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the second time since joining the Nets.
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