Nets still seeking effort on court with 15 games remaining
Nets guard Cam Thomas gets past Magic forward Paolo Banchero for a shot during the first half of an NBA game Wednesday in Orlando, Fla. Credit: AP/John Raoux
INDIANAPOLIS — With 15 games to go, the Nets are tired of saying the same things about finding effort and lacking energy.
The messages are becoming cliche. The answers haven’t translated on the court and at this point, the Nets know there is little time to figure it out.
They had an extra day off in Orlando to look in the mirror, as several players said after their loss to the Magic. What they saw isn’t important. What they do next matters more over the final month of the season.
“You’ve just got to stop saying it and we’ve just got to do it at some point,” Cam Thomas said at shootaround Saturday. “What is it game 66 or whatever this is? We’re still talking about effort, then that's a problem. We’ve just got to figure out a way to get it done.”
Interim coach Kevin Ollie has talked so much about the Nets needing to fight, hit first and keep swinging that he sounds like a boxing trainer. The Nets’ slim hope of a play-in tournament berth are on the ropes just waiting to fall and be counted out.
They enter Saturday’s game at the Pacers three games behind the Hawks, who lost Friday. So there’s still time to make up ground but the players haven’t shown the urgency of a team with something to play for.
“It’s on everybody,” Nic Claxton said this week. “It's our job; it’s not on the coaches. It’s on the players for us to go out and just bring it every single night, and regardless of what's going on out there.”
Consider how they looked against the Magic. The Nets held them to just 10 paint points and 33.3% shooting on threes in the second half. They trailed 65-59 with 10:30 in the third quarter.
Yet it didn’t stop them giving up a 23-10 run to trail by 19 points at the 3:31 mark, essentially putting the game away. That’s the lack of effort that’s deemed inexcusable yet not surprising because it’s happened far too often.
When shots don’t fall, the Nets slump and it hurts their defense, which good teams take advantage of. Rinse, repeat, that’s the Nets formula for the past 2 1/2 months.
“It’s frustrating to be a part of. It’s frustrating to watch,” Cam Johnson said this week. “And there have been times where we’ve cleaned it up but we just need to be more consistent. And just got to be consistent with our effort, our energy, and just have the unselfish spirits about us.”
It’s probably too late to hope for a winning season. The Nets are two losses away from clinching their first losing season in four years.
The play-in race is the only thing to keep fans interested, although that interest grows fainter by the day. Yet it’s enough to where Ollie wants his team to be motivated and play with pride.
“Hope they still see some light at the end of the tunnel because the season’s not over with,” Ollie said this week. “We got to keep playing like one step at a time and one game at a time and can we get better each game in each minute we step out on the court and be together.”
Four of their Nets’ five opponents are in playoff contention, starting with the Pacers on Saturday. It’s not easy but neither is the Hawks’ next five games at the Clippers, Lakers and Suns before hosting the Hornets and Celtics.
The Nets, however, can’t focus on that and they're not. If they want to salvage their season, they need to figure out their effort problem. With time running out, either they show it or they’ll keep being exposed in a season that’s been disappointing.
"It's no excuses no more. We’ve just got to make sure we do it,” Dennis Schroder said. “We’re doing a lot of talking and that's great to have the communication piece. But at the end of the day, as players we’ve just got to go out there and play as hard as we can, dictate the game on the defense and offensive end."
Evan Barnes covers the Nets for Newsday. He previously covered Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
