Leaky defense is primary area in need of improvement

NEW YORK — The Nets did not practice the day after their 114-96 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

Practice time is scarce this season, as teams are maneuvering a condensed 72-game season amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead, players gathered for a film session to review what went wrong in their worst loss of the early season, a poor offensive showing that frequently gave the Hawks a running start off missed Nets shots.

Nets head coach Steve Nash outlined a number of the issues he saw in real time that the team discussed over film, including fundamentals of getting back in transition and facing the right direction, getting matched up with the right assignment, when to switch on pick-and-rolls versus when to fight through them, and being in the right positions to help without compromising the integrity of the defense.

“So without giving out chapter one in Nets basketball defense, we’ve slipped a little,” Nash said on Saturday. “Going into Atlanta, we were No. 1 in the league (in defense) and obviously they were sensational offensively and we were poor in the first game, but in the second game, the defense wasn’t too bad in the halfcourt, it was transition that killed us.

“So getting back to principles, recognizing that we’re a group that — a lot of it is the newness, not just with the principles but with each other.”

Nash said players have veered off script of what is expected of them on the defensive end and it cost them not just Friday night, but also on Wednesday when they won an all-out slugfest by the skin of their teeth in a 144-141 thriller.

“[We’re] trying to be proactive with our principles, so some of that just takes time, and it’s a process so we’re just gonna have to stick with it,” he said. “We recognized defensively, a lot of miscommunications, lack of talk, missing assignments. Simple stuff, fundamental stuff, so just cleaning that up. And offensively, just getting into actions more, getting into our sets, getting a rhythm and a feel watching the ball work for us, and just giving us an opportunity to allow the defense to make tough decisions. Those are the two things we felt and we saw on the tape and we’ll keep working on.”