Nets continuing to play lineup roulette as injuries keep mounting

BOSTON — Jacque Vaughn figured the Nets would be a deeper team than he had last year taking over as head coach after seven games.

During training camp and preseason practices, he often mixed up lineups for scrimmages, with starters and reserves intermingled. It’s common in some ways but Vaughn often paired lineups that might not feature main rotation guys.

“Sometimes you don't do that. You get your first and your second team and you let them play together to try to form chemistry,” Vaughn said this week. “We saw the positive in this group that different lineups could be out there, that different guys could fit into the system.”

The experiment is now essential with the Nets being forced to use different combos of players due to injuries. It’ll happen again Friday night facing the Celtics as Ben Simmons is out for a second consecutive game due to left hip soreness.

Cam Johnson is available after missing seven games with a strained calf. But his return comes with Nic Claxton still out (sprained ankle) and Cam Thomas out for at least two weeks with a sprained ankle.

Thomas is the sixth Nets player to miss at least one game this season but thanks to Vaughn’s preseason plan, they’re not worried. It also helps how the roster is constructed with similar-type players, especially on the wing, who can slide in and thrive on offense if needed.

“In the NBA, a team is based around two-to-three guys,” Spencer Dinwiddie said at shootaround. “It’s like the number one, the number two, and then your auxiliary third. Here, we're like whoever’s rolling, gets it and we just rely upon that.”

Such was the case Wednesday. In the fourth quarter, the Nets relied on a lineup of Royce O’Neale, Day’Ron Sharpe, Lonnie Walker IV, Dennis Smith Jr. and Trendon Watford. A group that hadn’t played together all season spent nearly three minutes against a Clippers’ on-court lineup that had James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Paul George.

The Nets outscored them 9-2 and used that cushion to hold off the Clippers. It was similar to how another first-time lineup — with Armoni Brooks — helped the Nets dismiss the Heat with a six-minute cushion in the fourth.

The key, Watford said, was those preseason scrimmages breeding some familiarity.

“We all know pretty much each other's game and you know we just go out there and compete and at the end of the day, it is just basketball,” Watford said.

Vaughn added he wants everyone ready because as a coach, his style is to play everybody at some point. It’s unselfish in a way but now it seems proactive given that the Nets have already used 14 players in meaningful, non-garbage time minutes.

It’s also helped put more pressure on other teams if they don’t know how to prepare for certain lineups.

“Some teams are real predictable, they're going to do this, you're going do that, they're going to do this or do that,” Johnson said. “We've had to pepper guys around a little bit, put them in different spots. Different guys have had big nights for us.

“So it's just a lot less individual plays, individual moves to study and [more about] how we function as a team, which is different.”

With Thomas out and Johnson back, expect that plan to get more traction. Johnson will play with guys he rarely shared the court with since he missed most of preseason due to injury.

It'll mean more unique lineups going forward. But as the Nets learned so far, their experience doing it before — even in practice — can translate well in games.

“We lose one Cam, gain another Cam, and he's going to look to pick up a lot of the scoring slack,” Dinwiddie said. “I think it'll be good to just be able to continue to rotate guys and have everybody get an opportunity.”

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.