On sked row
Upcoming month may determine Nets' fate
After going from . 500 to five games below in the span of a week, the Nets return home to begin a monthlong stretch in their schedule that could determine whether they make a third straight postseason trip.
Beginning with Monday night’s game at Barclays Center against James Harden, Dwight Howard and the Rockets, the Nets will play 13 of their final 16 games before the AllStar break against teams with winning records, with two of the three games against losing teams coming on a Western swing next week.
Given the Nets are entering that stretch carrying a fivegame losing streak — including four to sub.500 teams — there isn’t a lot to inspire confidence they will be able to get things back on track. But after Saturday’s loss to the Pistons, coach Lionel Hollins said he hasn’t lost faith in his team.
“When you’re in a stretch like we’re in, this [past week] could be the stretch that determines the season,” Hollins said. “There’s a lot of ups and downs. If you look around at all the teams [in the East], Detroit is playing better, Charlotte is playing better, Toronto has had a couple of hiccups. … It’s an upanddown thing.
“No one is running away from anybody, and you’ve just got to keep getting some wins.”
Hollins is right — it’s hard to see anyone running away with the final couple playoff spots in the East. Despite their skid, the Nets haven’t even fallen out of the seventh spot yet. But what those losses have done is allow the pack of trailing teams to close the gap. The Nets enter Monday just a game ahead of the eighthplace Heat, two games ahead of the Pacers and Hornets and three games ahead of the Pistons and Celtics.
If the Nets can’t come somewhere close to treading water during this stretch, it easily could leave them looking up at a large pack of teams by the time AllStar festivities kickoff in midFebruary.
“[There’s] no question it’s a big couple weeks coming up,” Mason Plumlee said. “It’s going to test us, and it’s going to see what we’re made of.”
For the Nets to be able to find a way to stand up to that test, they’re going to have to start making more shots from 3point range — they’ve shot 25for110 (22.7 percent) from behind the arc during their losing streak.
That’s the continuation of a seasonlong trend for the Nets, who have struggled to produce anywhere near the kind of offensive output that was expected of them.
“We’ve just got to take it with confidence,” Joe Johnson said. “When the shot’s there, take it. Be aggressive offensively. I think it’s just a lot of indecision … being very indecisive on making plays. Whether it’s a swing [the ball], whether it’s shooting and driving, we’ve got to play basketball.”
They’ll have to start doing it soon if they don’t want this upcoming string of tough opponents to leave them buried under a pile of losses too big from which to escape.