LOS ANGELES – In their first two seasons in the NBA, the Nets’ Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins and Brian Scalabrine went to the Finals. In their third season, they advanced to the conference semis and likely were denied a third trip to the championship round through one possession.
All they have known is success. Until this year. Welcome to the dark side.
“It’s definitely different. I definitely don’t like it,” Collins said before the Nets sought their turnaround game last night here against the Clippers.
In the last three years with the trio, the Nets won 52, 49 and 47 games, for a won-loss record of 148-98 (.601), a most impressive ratio. Now, Jefferson, Collins and Scalabrine see how the other half lives. The Nets got off to a 2-8 start and the chief concern is determining how many ping-pong balls they’ll get in the spring lottery.
“This isn’t over. There’s a lot of the season [left]. We’re still going to win. We’re still going to have a successful season,” insisted Jefferson, who has led the Nets, losers of six straight, in scoring (22.3) and rebounding (9.5). “We’re playing some of the best defense in the NBA. It’s a matter of cutting down turnovers and having guys become a little bit more familiar with the offense, and as long as our defense carries over, we’re going to be all right.”
If you say so. Jefferson and Collins are starters while Scalabrine has been a reserve. But that doesn’t mean it hurts any less.
“I’m just as frustrated as [anyone]. You just want to find a way to win games. But on the other hand, you can’t be pressing and stressing,” Scalabrine explained. “You have to go with the flow of the game. I’ve just got to do my role. I give it all I’ve got every play. You can’t press it, can’t start stressing about it.”
But, to use Scalabrine’s expression, how can players not press and stress? They won, won, won with Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin and Kerry Kittles as teammates. Now with Kidd rehabbing (and eyeing an exit), with Martin in Denver and Kittles here with the Clippers, all Jefferson, Collins and Scalabrine have felt is lose, lose, lose this season. Coach Lawrence Frank must keep an eye on potential mental damage.
“They’ve been such a big part of winning, they understand how hard it is to win,” Frank said. “And since they’ve tasted winning, they know how special it is. And not just them, Alonzo [Mourning] has obviously been on successful teams, Eric Williams has been on successful teams, Travis [Best] as well. So it’s important. But the thing we’re getting every day, we’re becoming more and more as a team. It’s not old Nets, new Nets. We’re trying to become one. And obviously it’s easier to become one when you win.”
The season has held far too many similarities to the dark lean years. There’s the losing. There’s malcontent players – Kidd and Mourning want out by, oh say, last week. And so the Nets cling to anything positive. Bench outscores the opponent’s subs in a loss? Great. Turnovers down? Fabulous.
Sure beats thinking about being last in scoring, last in assists, first in turnovers.
“I don’t recall making [predictions]. I thought we’d have a much better record than this and we should. We’ve had games where we missed free throws. Five, six games were decided by under 10 points. That can go either way,” Jefferson said.
“It’s a challenge and it’s difficult, but I’m optimistic,” Collins said. “We’re giving ourselves a chance with our defense and it’s just a matter of improvement.”