Furious Nets rally falls short in Philly
Here’s what the Nets learned about their potential playoff opponent in their 123-117 loss to the 76ers in Philadelphia on Wednesday: healthy or not, it’s going to be a tough series. The Nets were without Kevin Durant (rest), James Harden (hamstring), LaMarcus Aldridge (illness), Blake Griffin (rest), Tyler Johnson (knee) and Chris Chiozza (hand), as well as Spencer Dinwiddie (ACL) who’s been out since the third game of the season. Nets coach Steve Nash did not feel he gained a tactical advantage facing the top-ranked and mostly-healthy Sixers without four of his team’s best five players.
“So much will change and we’ll both be in a different place if we’re fortunate enough to meet in the playoffs, so don’t think we take too much away from it,” Nash said pregame. “It is an opportunity to see them, to feel them and get a little more of an understanding of how they operate.”
Shorthanded, the Nets took a crash course in Joel Embiid, the Sixers’ star center firmly embedded in Most Valuable Player conversations. DeAndre Jordan got the start in place of the sick Aldridge, and while Jordan gave the Nets a spark with his athleticism and defensive I.Q., he, like many others, was no match for Embiid’s brute strength.
Philly’s big man finished with 37 points in only three quarters of play. He overpowered Jordan, Nic Claxton and Jeff Green, making 13 of his 28 attempts to go with 13 rebounds and two assists. Embiid is the worst-case matchup for a Nets team that has struggled defending bruiser-type big men. The Nets struggled as Andre Drummond dominated Aldridge in the Lakers’ rout of the Nets earlier this week. Embiid is Drummond v8.0, a player who likens himself to Durant but with a Shaquille O’Neal like inside presence on both ends.
Kyrie Irving scored 37 points with nine assists and generated offense where the
Nets could not as a team. But it was the minutes the Nets played down the stretch without Irving that gave them the best chance to win the game.
The Sixers led by 22 early into the fourth quarter, but the Nets’ “stay-ready group” of fringe rotation players turned the tide in the fourth quarter, led by Alize Johnson, whose energy and grit earned him a guaranteed, multi-year contract worth in excess of $4 million total. Johnson proved an effective first look for Embiid: He used his quickness to front the entry pass in the post before Claxton came over and used his length in a double team.
“Just activity. Hustle. They worked for each other at both ends of the floor,” Nash said of the second unit. “Scrapped. They were able to recover the momentum and played really well.”
That sequence nearly forced a turnover in a three-point game down the stretch of the fourth quarter. Johnson’s aggression earned him a personal foul, but his impact was tangible: The Nets outscored the Sixers by 16 in the 12 minutes he spent on the floor, and Johnson finished with eight points and eight rebounds, including three critical offensive boards.
“Man just played their hearts out. That’s all you can ask coming out here to play the game that we all love. Just to go out there and compete. You know I’m sure they were champing at the bit,” said Irving of the Nets’ second unit. “Especially to get that win down the stretch for us and I feel like they grew as a group, we grew as a team and they learned some things out there playing against a high level playoff team that we can potentially see down the line. So it was a fun game overall.”
The Sixers weren’t fully healthy, either: Dwight Howard (knee soreness), rookie Tyrese Maxey and veteran guard George Hill each did not play for Philadelphia, and neither did veteran stretch five Anthony Tolliver. Wednesday night was the last time these two teams will face each other until they meet — if they meet — in the Eastern Conference playoffs.