Holiday fear
Nets brace for mighty Warriors before heading off to Cleveland
For the holidays the NBA schedule-makers gave the Nets the league’s version of a lump of coal: A threegame stretch of road games at Toronto and Cleveland, sandwiched around Thursday’s home game against Golden State, the most starstudded team in basketball.
Yeah, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to you, too.
“Now, we have a monstrous three games coming up, and it’s going to be a hell of a test,’’ coach Kenny Atkinson had said before his Nets failed the first part of that test, drilled 116-104 in Toronto on Tuesday night.
The Nets had gone just 1-2 in a soft three-game stretch against the Lakers, Magic and 76ers. Now, after blowing the easy quizzes, they’re faced with a test they’re almost assuredly not ready for, a three-game gauntlet against the league’s best.
After Atkinson chastised his team’s lack of competitiveness and hustle at halftime Tuesday, they come home to a matchup of the Nets’ NBA-worst point differential against the Warriors’ league-best.
Then t he Nets f ly to Cleveland to face LeBron James & Co. on Friday.
It will take a Herculean effort for them not to be in the air Christmas Eve morning stewing on a five-game losing streak.
“We have it, but we don’t have it all the time. We have it, but do not have it every game,” Luis Scola sa i d. “What makes good teams good teams is the fact that they do it every day, they do it for 48 minutes, they do it consistently and they do it all the time. We have to learn, especially coming on the road playing really good teams.”
Good might be a mild understatement.
“We’re going to play the three best teams in the NBA. How is it going to be? If we get a so-so effort, we’re going to be down 20,’’ Scola said. “If we get great effort and maybe hopefully play well, then we’re going to have a chance. That’s the mindset and mentality and how to approach these games is what we really need to learn.”
OK, San Antonio might take umbrage with that “three best” part. But his point stands.
The Raptors are 20-8, sitting atop the Atlantic Division and just a game back in the Eastern Conference going into Wednesday. The conference leaders? Well, that would be the defending NBA champion Cavaliers, who have the East’s best record, the world’s best player and play host to Brooklyn on Friday.
But the top spot? Golden State with the offseason addition of Kevin Durant to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson turning the Splash Brothers into the Death Lineup. The Warriors are a league-best 25-4, every bit the offensive juggernaut they were supposed to be, and better defensively than expected.
Golden State is leading the NBA in scoring (117.9), shooting percentage (.498) and assists (31.5). But the Warriors play shockingly good defense, coming off a game in which they held Utah’s starters to just 25 points. They fact they lead the league in steals, and the Nets have surrendered the most points on turnovers in the league, is just icing on the cake.
“Everyone, including me, has to go home and figure out what we can do to play hard next game,’’ said point guard Jeremy Lin, coming off his first start since Nov. 2. “I don’t even care about X’s and O’s, or field-goal percentage or anything else. If we don’t play harder than the other team, to me everything else is kind of void.”
Isaiah Whitehead saw a doctor Wednesday and is questionable with a sore left foot.