Atkinson goes back to the boards to fix rebounding

PHILADELPHIA — For Nets coach Kenny Atkinson, discerning his team’s biggest weakness has been a lot easier than dealing with it.

Getting hammered on the glass led to the Nets’ eight-game losing streak, but they bounced back to outrebound the league-leading Raptors and rival Knicks in back-toback wins heading into Wednesday’s game against the 76ers.

“One common theme we’ve identified in the close losses is the defensive rebounding. If you had a list, it’d be No. 1 in terms of our weakness,” Atkinson said. “You take end-ofgame and then our overall defensive rebounding percentage, that’s our No. 1 weakness. We’ve been emphasizing it. We have a short sample size, but we have been getting better. … But we have to do a better job.”

After outrebounding the Raptors and Knicks by a combined 105-81, the Nets worked on free-throw rebounding, regular rebounding out of sets, emphasizing getting the first hit and searching for ways to improve.

Atkinson has tried switching philosophies this season to have designated players crashing the offensive glass rather than being dogmatic about getting back in transition defense.

“Last year he was just telling everybody to get back,” DeMarre Carroll said.

“When you’re on an eight-game losing streak, you have to go all-out on offense and defense, whatever you need to do. … It’s deflating when we play a hell of a defensive possession and can’t get the rebound. So you look at it vice versa … offensive rebounds is analytically one of the better stats in basketball, so it helps out a lot,” Ed Davis said.

“Our analytics group, they gave us a presentation. I was like ‘Man, that makes some sense.’ We’ve got to start gaining more possessions on the offensive end. It’s worth its money in gold. That’s helped, and it hasn’t hurt our transition defense,” Atkinson said. “We’ve identified, here are the guys that can crash, here are the guys you better get your ass back type deal.”

But that clearly proved not to be enough, so lately a desperate Atkinson acknowledged fixing the problem may take personnel changes. He recently tinkered with rotations that get 6-foot-9 rookie Rodions Kurucs on the floor with a power forward and the 6-8 Carroll in at off-guard.

“Man, it’s been a while,” Carroll said. “I have to come off picks and shoot 3s. I haven’t played that since high school.”

The 76ers’ Jimmy Butler is doubtful to play Wednesday with a groin injury.