Wake-up fall
Sixers deliver Nets rude awakening
As shocking as it sounds for a team that had the worst record in the NBA last season, the Nets got a little too full of themselves after a solid preseason.
The Sixers smacked that right out of them.
The Nets got overconfident, and Wednesday got overwhelmed 133-114 by Philadelphia and transcendent talent Joel Embiid at the refurbished Nassau Coliseum.
After opening the preseason 3-0, the Nets practiced poorly Tuesday. They played far, far worse than that in Wednesday’s preseason finale. It was a galling way to go into the Oct. 18 season opener in Indiana.
“Yeah, not being ready. I think all that leads over,” D’Angelo Russell said. “I think it’s perfect. We were 3-0 and didn’t really know what losing was after going 3-0 in the preseason. So, going into the regular season we have a chip on our shoulder to work hard in practice the next six days and bounce back.”
Russell scored a team-high 24 points, while Caris LeVert added 16 off the bench and Jeremy Lin had 14. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson had a 12 in 13:08 on 6-of-7 shooting, but left
SIXERS 133 NETS 114
with a hand injury.
But make no mistake the Nets got thoroughly outplayed in every single aspect of the game. They let the Sixers shoot 51.1 percent, they got outrebounded 52-37 and saw Embiid make his preseason debut with 22 points, seven boards and 14-of-18 shooting from the free-throw line in just 14:45.
“I saw it coming, and we talked about it. Coaches have to try to be ahead of it. Listen, it’s a great wake-up call,” said Nets coach Kenny Atkinson, raised just 20 miles away in South Huntington. “I’m going to turn this into a positive. Maybe going through the preseason 4-0, we’d think we’re a juggernaut. Really, we have a long way to go. So, it was a good wake-up call for all of us, players and coaches.
“Great job by Philadelphia. They were better in every single aspect of the game. There’s not one aspect where you say, ‘Well, the Nets were better.’ They dominated us in every position, every play. It’s disappointing, because I thought we were playing well.”
They had been playing well in crushing the Heat and Knicks (twice). But this was an example of what happens when they a) come in complacent, and b) sleepwalk against a team filled with the high lottery picks that ex-Nets general manager Billy King’s ill-fated trade with the Celtics robbed them of any chance at.
Brooklyn jumped ahead 17-7, but the bench started a 31-5 Sixers’ run that spanned the first and second quarters. It turned a 10-point lead into a 16-point hole that eventually became the Grand Canyon.
The Nets trailed by as many as 36 at 125-89 on a Ben Simmons bank shot midway through the fourth. Dario Saric had 26 point for the Sixers, whom the Nets never really slowed down.
“Yeah, I’d say it definitely carries over. I think maybe we got a little bit too comfortable,” Lin said. “I’m glad it happened because now we should have an edge about us, and this is a good reminder we can’t ever lose that.
“I think this is probably going to be [a wake-up call]. The beauty of this preseason is we saw what we could look like, and we saw what we shouldn’t look like.”
It shouldn’t look anything like Wednesday night.