The Nets saw another fourth-quarter lead slip away against a good team Tuesday night in Brooklyn, and as they prepared to face the same Celtics in Boston on Friday, they knew they had plenty to fix before they could change that.
Not only are the Nets young, but they also have a team that hasn’t played together all that much yet and that’s especially evident during the end of games when it matters most.
“I think with the fourth-quarter execution, a lot of things that we did well throughout the game, we didn’t do in the fourth,” Jordi Fernández said following practice in Brooklyn on Thursday. “A lot of times, it’s just hard in this league to have that level of intensity and focus. I believe we can keep doing those things and, obviously, playing against teams that have players that have been there, with the experience, with the talent level, is very good for us.”
The goal is for the Nets to approach that same kind of stability as a franchise.
They’ve got a veteran leader in Michael Porter Jr. who just arrived this season, as well as those who have been in Brooklyn longer — like longest-tenured Net Nic Claxton — but others have been with the team for a while and are still learning the ropes.
That’s where Noah Clowney comes in.
The third-year forward has spent his career with the Nets but is still just 21.
Asked what he made of the fourth-quarter issues, with the Nets being outscored 18-3 by the Celtics at one point, Clowney said it was “the same thing” they’ve dealt with before.
“We play so hard to put ourselves in a position where we can win games, but we don’t know quite how to finish games,” Clowney said of the roster that hasn’t played as a unit all that much. “You see against older teams that have been together, they kind of know where they want to get to at the end of the game.
“Where we’re almost timid, like we don’t know what we want to do. We’re just not good at executing it yet. I think that will come with time.”
Until then, though, expect the losses to pile up.
After Friday’s game in Boston, the Nets visit the Raptors in Toronto, host the Knicks and 76ers before heading to Milwaukee.
All five of those games are against playoff contenders, while the Nets are 2-12 and perhaps on their way to the worst season in franchise history.
Of course, that’s partially by design, with the organization looking at finally landing a star in the draft.
They ended up winning 26 games and getting the eighth pick in the draft last season, and the player they took with that pick, Egor Dëmin, clearly has some offensive skill, but he’s been on the bench during crucial moments late in games.
He’s adjusting on the fly.
“You look at teams and the most successful teams are the ones with the most… veterans,” Dëmin said. “Because they’ve been in those situations a thousand times.”
He hasn’t been around long, but Dëmin pointed to the Warriors as an example.
“They have no problem playing and finishing games,” Dëmin said. “This is something we talked about a couple days ago with Noah and [Day’Ron Sharpe]. Those teams really know what to do. And for us, it’s a good challenge now to learn how to play against those teams … and being able to accomplish what we need to accomplish.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
