Nash not worried about job status as Nets spiral
Despite the Nets’ league-leading nine-game losing streak, Nets head coach Steve Nash says job security hasn’t come up in conversations with the front office. “I think we recognize the position we’re in,” Nash said after his team’s 35-point shellacking at the hands of the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. “We’re undermanned. We know what our record was when we were healthy and we’re just going through a tough period so I think we’re all, if anything, tighter, from ownership, front office, coaches, players, everyone’s grown tighter during this period.”
The Nets woes have gone handin-hand with their health: They are now 2-10 since Kevin Durant left the lineup with a sprained MCL and have struggled to remain competitive with James Harden battling a nagging left hamstring.
Harden missed his third straight game due to the hamstring on Tuesday and has missed five of the team’s last seven games due to injury. Kyrie Irving is also unable to play at Barclays Center due to New York City’s vaccine mandate, and Joe Harris (ankle surgery), LaMarcus Aldridge (ankle sprain) and Nic Claxton (hamstring tightness) have each been absent from Nash’s rotation.
The losing streak could continue on through the Feb. 20 NBA All-Star break, especially if Harden can’t go. That means the Nets could be looking at four more losses – a 14-game losing streak – before the ship turns in the right direction.
Nash is remaining positive, even as the losses pile.
“There will be growth from this, regardless of how long it lasts,” he said. “We just have got to keep our guys supported. It’s a tough stretch for them to go through. There’s no other way out of it than to keep our heads down and stay together.”
CARTER’S CORNER
Reserve guard Jevon Carter exploded for seven threes in the Nets’ blowout loss to the Celtics on Tuesday. The three-point barrage marked Carter’s best performance as a Net by far, and he felt like it was his night before the game.
“Yeah it feels like that every day,” he said. “That’s how I work.”
Nash has applauded Carter’s professionalism many times this season, that despite his fluctuating minutes, the thirdyear guard maintains a positive outlook.
“It’s the NBA,” Carter said. “I mean it’s a lot of people out there wishing and hoping they was in my position. You know what I mean? I can only control what I can control. Whether coach (is) gonna play me, not play me, whatever it is, I just got to come up and show up to work and be ready to get out there.”
OUTSIDE IS OUTSIDE
Veteran forward and Nets backup point guard James Johnson gave his teammates a message as the Feb. 10 NBA Trade Deadline gets closer: Keep the outside noise – that is, the trade rumors – exactly there: outside.
“The outside noise is not with us,” Johnson said. “They’re not in this locker room. They ain’t run no suicides with you. They ain’t do anything like that. So make the task the task and the business is the business, and we all understand that, so I say let’s go out and play for one another and let upper management and Sean handle that.”