LESS REHEARSAL
Nets scale back on practices, nearly pull off upset of Bucks
A team that needs the most practice might also be in the biggest need of a breather to heal bodies and psyches. Do you put your hand on a struggling player’s shoulder, or your foot in his behind?
These are the questions facing the Nets, who headed into the All-Star break with a 129-125 loss to the Bucks at Barclays Center on Wednesday night.
Rookie head coach Kenny Atkinson ultimately is the man who will have to answer those questions.
“We don’t believe in threehour practices,’’ Atkinson said. “Some of my staff say ‘We should practice three hours, coach, with what we need to work on.’ Then the performance team looks at me and says we should go 10 minutes today because we need these guys’ legs. It’s great. It’s great discussions we have, great debates we have, and then we make the decision.”
The assistants of course want to drill their players on this fundamental or that action, and naturally the performance team — brought in by general manager Sean Marks in large part for “prehab” to avoid injuries — wants to keep those players fresh.
That hasn’t always worked. Jeremy Lin, after all, missed his 44th game with a left hamstring injury. And Wednesday’s defeat pushed the Nets even deeper into the NBA cellar, and that much closer to some dubious league history.
The Nets, who are an NBA-worst 9-47, ran their losing skid to 14 and their home slump to 16 in a row, the third-longest in league history. They haven’t won on their home court since Dec. 26 and didn’t defend anybody in their final game before the break.
They wasted a career night from Brook Lopez, who had a season-high 36 points, hit 6-of-10 from 3point range and matched a career-best with eight blocks. He became the first player in NBA history with eight blocks and six 3s. Spencer Dinwiddie added 19 points as the Nets got within two points late but still lost.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 33 points and nine boards, Greg Monroe added 25 off the bench and the Nets allowed 56.8 percent shooting as they fell behind by 13 and never closed the gap.
As the losses have piled up and the season has become drudgery, the Nets have canceled shootarounds and scheduled practices over the past few weeks, trying to keep their players fresh.
There was input from a host of directions, but it all stopped on Atkinson’s desk.
“Ultimately, I make the call. It’s one of the hardest parts of the job,’’ Atkinson said. “At the end of the day, you want your guys to be fresh when the game starts, but on the other hand you know you have 28 things you need to work on. So we’re constantly, constantly talking about it, analyzing it and again.”
Practice time is limited. Atkinson has talked about the schedule not affording enough time to practice everything he wants, and admitted he and his staff have to find a way to balance their work on offense and defense so that their performances aren’t so one-sided. Now it’s the defense struggling again.
“I personally said after the Timberwolves game [a 20point loss at Minnesota on Jan. 28] we really need to move toward the defensive end, and I’m glad we did it. But this is part of the learning curve for a new coach, is you also have got to find that balance,’’ Atkinson said. “We’re getting back to doing more offensive things, more offensive breakdowns, but also including defensive segments in our practices.”
Finding that balance — and managing those practice minutes — will go a long way toward determining Atkinson’s growth as a coach and the Nets’ improvement in the season’s second half.
“We just couldn’t get the stop,’’ said Atkinson, who praised Lopez. “I thought Brook was a monster, really. It’s impressive. … His attitude and how he approaches every day — considering the situation — he deserves applause.” brian.lewis@nypost.com