Nets must finish better … or they’re finished
A season that began with high hopes for the Nets thanks to the presence of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons is on the verge of ending Saturday.
But the players who have replaced the trio of stars are hoping to extend the season by at least one more game as they continue to learn to play without Durant and Irving, who were traded at the deadline, and Simmons, who has been hampered by injuries.
“I wouldn’t say there’s experience to lean on,’’ said Cam Johnson, one of the few Nets who had played in the postseason prior to this season. “There’s desperation. We’ve just got to play hard and learn from our mistakes. Tomorrow is a new day.”
No team in NBA history has come back from being down 3-0 in a series, which is the deficit the Nets face as they host the 76ers in a first-round clash at Barclays Center on Saturday afternoon.
“I told the players, ‘You have a choice to show up,’ ” head coach Jacque Vaughn said. “I’m looking forward to seeing who responds. I think it says a lot about [players], being in situations like this. Character gets built this time of year. … We didn’t give up [Thursday] night, we grew up. This is an opportunity to show up and grow up.”
As Vaughn noted, with Simmons out, the Nets don’t have a current, or even a former, All-Star on their roster. Still, they had their chances to win each of the last two games only for the more battle-tested — and talented — 76ers to pull out victories.
On Friday, the Nets had a light workout at their facility in Brooklyn, looking to address some of the mistakes they made, especially down the stretch, in previous games.
“We talked to the group about growing up, and this is part of the growing-up process,’’ Vaughn said. “It’s not always going to be perfect.’’
One example was their loss
Thursday night. The Nets led by five with 2:15 to go after Royce O’Neale’s putback of a Mikal Bridges miss — but then were outscored 11-1 the rest of the way.
Johnson said the Nets have to “finish better.”
“It’s something I noticed early in my years in Phoenix,’’ said Johnson, who came to the Nets, with Bridges, in the trade that sent Durant to the Suns in February. “Winning and executing lategame [situations] and winning close games is a real skill. It’s a real team skill and it’s something we’re still developing.’’
They’re running out of time to figure it out this season, though they’ve shown flashes of what they can do, particularly in the third quarter of Game 3, when the Nets outscored Philadelphia, 35-18.
“We’re not that far off,’’ Dorian Finney-Smith said. “Probably the last three minutes, the ball just found a way to go their way. There’s no excuse. They’ve been the better team, but we definitely gave ourselves a chance.’’
As Johnson noted: “We’ve been close, but close doesn’t always cut it. There’s a fine line between winning and losing this time of year.”
And they will have to come out on the right side Saturday if they want their lessons to continue.
“We’ve got to go out there and show up and try to win,’’ FinneySmith said. “Not just go out there down 3-0 and mope around. We’ll come out there and compete. … Why not have it be us to do something different that’s never been done before?”