CLIP & SLIDE
The Nets’ NBA-worst sevengame losing streak started two weeks ago against the Clippers, taking a beating so bad that it shook their faith and shattered their trust.
Now, their sieve-like defense, the worst in the league, is hosting that same Clippers team Tuesday.
“Looking back on that game, that’s one of the games where we really didn’t compete at all. That’s where it all started,’’ Trevor Booker said. “So I’d hope this team would think about how we played that game, and would come out with a little more intensity, and hopefully we get a better showing.” It’d be hard to have a worse one. The Nets (4-12) had been a solid 4-5 going into that Nov. 14 game at Staples Center, but got emasculated 127-95. Brooklyn fell behind 35-7 in the first quarter, lowlighted by DeAndre Jordan’s reverse dunk off a Blake Griffin alley-oop.
Their defense hasn’t been the same since, like trying to stop a tidal wave with toilet paper.
“We’re missing continuity in our lineup,’’ coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We’re mixing-and-matching right now. That affects the trust, and things get skewed a little.”
Atkinson was presumably alluding to point guard, where they’ve used four starters already. They’re 2-9 since Jeremy Lin was lost to a hamstring injury.
“It’s definitely obvious we took a hit, took that fall. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where,’’ said Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who is questionable for Tuesday’s game with a sore right ankle. “We’re coming in here, stressing holding each other accountable for the things we should do. If you need to be back, if you need to shift, well, you’d better do it. Stressing those things is big for us.”
They thought they had started to jell, but are 0-7 since imploding against the Clippers. Their 122.3 points conceded, .520 percent shooting allowed and average 19.3 point margin of defeat are all by far the worst in the league over that span.
“I like the coverages we’re in, I really do,’’ Atkinson said. “But in an NBA game there’s going to be breakdowns in coverages, there just are. Then our message is: Well, what are we doing behind that missed coverage?
“So you miss a coverage. Everybody misses a coverage. We have to minimize those. But previously when we were in our good stretch, we’d cover up those misses by an activity: a blocked shot, a rim protection, a guy making an extra effort to make a play to help a teammate.”
That’s been in short order. While the Nets have played hard, they’ve clearly have stopped playing together. They’ll defend individually, but the help defense has been inconsistent or late, and helping the helper is a distant memory.
“Yeah, I definitely see it. It’s one of the things we have to talk about. You can watch it on film and you can tell that the trust isn’t there,’’ Booker said. “We had it earlier in the season and now it’s gone. Hopefully we can get back to it.”
Easier said than done against Jordan, Griffin and Chris Paul. Sure, the Clippers (14-4) come in off back-to-back losses, overtaken since that Nov. 14 game by the Warriors, Spurs and Cavaliers for the NBA’s best record. But they’re still formidable.
“They’re a juggernaut,’’ Atkinson said. “They’re hitting on all cylinders. They have a great combination of really good veterans, guys that are peaking, and they have good continuity. They’ve been together awhile now, that’s huge.”
His job is to get the Nets playing together again.