Tough to beat the Rap
Nets’ Game 2 adjustments might not be enough
The Nets are going to continue prioritizing transition defense as they look to bounce back in Game 2 of their first-round series against the Raptors on Wednesday.
Brooklyn never led during Game 1 and lost, 134-110, while Toronto ran off 19 points off of fast break opportunities. The Raptor attack was led by Fred VanVleet's 30 points on 8of-10 shooting from three, but the reality is the Nets have their hands full: Seven different Toronto players scored in double figures, including the entire starting five, along with Serge Ibaka who poured in 22 points off the bench.
VanVleet was the hot man in Game 1. Several of his threes came from 30 feet or further, and his ability to put the ball on the floor and get to the rim gave Brooklyn issues all night.
“That was the first thing that was revealing was taking a look at those shots and seeing how deep they were,” said interim coach Jacque Vaughn.
“But overall, we do have to balance those guys turning the corner and getting into our paint and creating foul opportunities. Those are the things we still have to be aware of, but we will give them different looks hopefully so that open three, even from deep, doesn't look as open.”
Here comes the kicker: Van- Vleet is only the Raptors' third-best player. It could easily be Kyle Lowry in Game 2. Or All-Star Pascal Siakam in Game 3. Or a combination of Norman Powell and Marc Gasol in Game 4. This year's Raptors are the only team since 1974 to have five players average 15 or more points in a season.
“It's really a collective effort against them. Because any given game, one of those guys can really go off. So I think overall for us we really have to take care of the things we're capable of taking care of,” Vaughn said. “Transition allows us to sprint back into our half court D so now VanVleet isn't getting easy layups to the rim, Kyle Lowry isn't drawing fouls and getting to the foul line. So those things are kind of scaffolded and create different layers of problems, but you've got to get down to your base and get back in transition defense and let them play against you. Then you can figure those other matchups out.”
That's only one end of the floor — and it's not even the Raptors' good side.
The Raptors have been the best defensive team in the NBA's Orlando bubble by a wide margin, and the Nets got a taste of their defensive intensity in the first quarter. Toronto held them to just 25% shooting from three and 8of-22 shooting from the field in the opening period. The Nets entered the series with the mindset that great shots might not be available against such a rapidly recovering and scrambling defense, but they appeared to rush into and settle for lower quality shots early into the game.
Nets players, though, said Vaughn and the coaching staff ran them through almost every coverage they would anticipate in a series against the Raptors.
“I don't think it was anything we didn't expect. We came into here well prepared in terms of the game plan. I think it took us a little bit to adjust to just like the game speed, we were kind of thrown back, it's the playoffs,” said Jarrett Allen. “A younger team, it just hit us a little differently about how hard we had to play. And then coming in playing against the defending champs we needed to expect them to come at us, come ready to play. So I think it was just a little adjustment period for all of us. And we were able to adjust a quarter-and-a-half way through.”