It wasn’t long ago — just over two weeks — that the Nets were coming off an embarrassing blowout in San Antonio to close the opening two months of the season with a dismal 10-21 record.
That, coupled with the news Brook Lopez would miss the rest of the season with a fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot, left many wondering if the Nets could still salvage a playoff berth this season — even in the dreadful Eastern Conference — and whether rookie coach Jason Kidd would even make it to May with a job.
But then the Nets went to Oklahoma City and, after Kidd decided they were going to permanently switch to a smaller lineup by sliding Paul Pierce over to power forward and Kevin Garnett to center, they pulled off a 15-point second-half comeback to open 2014 with a win over the Western Conference-leading Thunder. Kidd’s decision to go with the smaller lineup has looked like a stroke of brilliance, as the Nets have opened the year with six wins in seven games — including all five games Garnett participated in — culminating in Thursday’s dominant 127-110 win over the Hawks at O2 Arena in London.
Suddenly, the Nets had gone from a team in crisis with a coach potentially on the hot seat to one in a playoff spot in the East and with its owner publicly praising his team, and his coach, for their improved play.
“You know, we have very good pieces but we need time to play together as a team,” Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov said before Thursday’s win. “Now, our situation is much better, and our rookie coach is becoming more and more confident.”
Since the calendar flipped to 2014, the Nets have begun to look like the team their rookie coach has said he wanted them to become since training camp began at Duke University in the first week of October. Through the first 31 games of the season, the Nets were being outscored by 4.8 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com stats — which ranked 26th in the NBA — and were the league’s second worst defensive team.
During their recent stretch of success, however, they have seen their defense improve immensely, allowing 101.6 points per 100 possessions, good for seventh in the league, and are outscoring their opponents by more than four points per 100 possessions. By switching to the smaller lineup — and, most importantly, sliding Garnett over to center — the Nets have begun playing the kind of defense Kidd declared his team would play back in June when he was the surprise choice to lead the franchise after a more than month-long search for interim coach P.J. Carlesimo’s replacement. Garnett’s play has vastly improved and the reintroduction of Andrei Kirilenko after a lengthy bout with back spasms has also helped.
“I think we’re starting to play better,” Nets general manager Billy King said in an interview on Sirius XM Radio on Thursday. “We’ve gotten healthy. … Getting Kirilenko back on the floor has helped us, and Jason has done a good job of changing how we play. We’ve gone smaller and our defense has gotten a lot better, so I do like our attitude right now.”
For as much improvement as the Nets have seen defensively, their offense is now humming, as well. With Lopez — their anchor in the post — suddenly lost for the year, Kidd has had the Nets change their style of offense on the fly. After being a team that prided itself on pounding the ball into the paint through Lopez, the league’s best low-post scorer, they downshifted to the smaller lineup, playing 3-point shooters like Pierce and Mirza Teletovic at power forward, That has helped open up the floor for either open shots on the perimeter or open driving lanes to get to the rim.
“Guys are sharing the ball,” said Kidd, who preached ball movement throughout his Hall of Fame career. “Ever since the new year, there’s a lot more guys touching the ball, accepting the double team and finding the open guy and making the right play.”
That was evident Thursday when the Nets made more than 50 field goals for the first time in nearly five years, and finished with a season-high 38 assists.
“I think it’s simple,” said Joe Johnson, who had 29 points Thursday to lead the Nets. “There’s really no rhyme or reason to it. We’re just out there moving the basketball, and making things easy.
“We’re doing a great job of exploiting mismatches, and making teams us dictating how we want to play.”
That began two weeks ago, when Kidd chose to go with the small lineup permanently and the Nets’ season may have, finally, started to turn around for good.