All of the Nets must do to cease a brief dropping streak that has the potential to develop right into a five-alarm fireplace is to beat an NBA title contender led by an MVP taking part in at his prime kind.
In different phrases, repeat precisely what they did seven days in the past.
Not solely did the Nets win at Western Convention-leading Denver final Sunday, but in addition they did so whereas overcoming a triple-double from Nuggets famous person Nikola Jokic.
The Nuggets, who suffered a 116-110 loss to the Knicks on Saturday on the Backyard, will go to Barclays Middle on Sunday on the lookout for revenge.
“I advised the fellows [Friday], ‘Some dudes stand up to the plate and also you don’t pitch to them,’ ” head coach Jacque Vaughn stated, utilizing a baseball metaphor. “We have now to have a method of who we’re going to pitch to. That recreation, we stated we had been going to let Jokic do what he was doing and see if we may [contain] the opposite guys.
“We’ll see if that system is identical. They’re a wise staff, they’ll make some changes. What I did like in that recreation was we performed with quite a lot of power, we had been scrambling round, very scrappy, performed small. These issues we’ll in all probability see once more.”
Since that 122-120 victory at Denver, the Nets have misplaced to the Thunder and Kings.
Two straight losses can turn into three, three can turn into 5 and 5 can turn into crushing to playoff seeding in a short time if the Nets don’t reply throughout the greatest week of their season.
“We perceive what it means to play playoff groups,” guard Spencer Dinwiddie stated. “We’re approaching it with that degree of focus.”
The rematch with the Nuggets precedes a home-and-home in opposition to the Cavaliers and a visit to Miami to face the Warmth, who’re nipping on the Nets’ heels within the race for the Jap Convention’s No. 6 seed and avoidance of the play-in event.
“Everyone knows math. All of us see the seeding,” Dinwiddie stated. “Everyone knows that.”
The 2-time MVP Jokic, who had 24 factors and 10 rebounds as Denver nonetheless misplaced on the Knicks on Saturday, calls for single-minded focus.
Final Sunday, Nic Claxton had no reply defensively, however the Nets discovered methods to counterpunch on the different finish.
“The larger, stronger guys, quite a lot of instances they’re in that type of blitz protection, so we are able to play a brief roll to Nic. Additionally it’s going to open up much more passing lanes for myself,” Dinwiddie stated. “If we make 3s, now we have an opportunity to have a dynamic recreation like we did in Denver.”
Dinwiddie had 16 assists to spark the win in opposition to the Nuggets, swinging the ball out of traps with “fast and decisive selections” to feed into the Nets’ 17 3-pointers.
The Nuggets’ excuse-making afterward was that they took the foot off the gasoline within the third quarter and allowed the Nets to go on a 37-18 run isn’t bulletin-board materials.
“They’re the No. 1 staff within the West, so it’s honest for them to say that,” Dinwiddie stated. “They’ve had a pair losses in a row [five of the last six games] so they’re in all probability making an attempt to cease the bleeding and determine themselves out, so I count on them to be motivated. That doesn’t change how we method them as a result of now we have our personal issues we’re preventing for.”
Vaughn gained’t have a look at the larger image.
The 6-foot-11 Jokic is large enough.
“The very first thing I stated after I received up this morning was, ‘I’m not wanting forward,’ ” Vaughn stated. “I actually don’t need them to look down the road too far. So many issues may come into play on the finish of the 12 months. That staff is nice sufficient that now we have sufficient issues to cope with that we don’t wish to exacerbate it by placing any extra stress on prime of it.”