Determining what the deal is with Stonehenge. Solving the Riddle of the Sphinx. Figuring out the 2014-15 Nets.
Some stuff baffles even the greatest minds.
“It’s tough to decipher this team, but we’re getting there,” center Brook Lopez said after practice Saturday when the Nets prepped for their Sunday home meeting with the Lakers.
Deciphering the Nets might be up there with Stonehenge and the Sphinx. Following a loss in Miami 2 ½ weeks ago, Brooklyn was 25-38, sitting 3 ½ games and three teams out of the eighth place in the East. Now, after an improbable victory over the torrid Cavaliers on Friday, the Nets are 31-40, just a half-game out of eighth.
“We haven’t given up. As bad as it got in the lowest points, we still were in the race. It was just baffling to us, crazy,” said Lopez, who contributed 20 points and nine rebounds against Cleveland, his fifth straight 20-point game. “We knew we could always make a push and we had an opportunity and we’re taking advantage of it.”
Coach Lionel Hollins, who on Sunday again will be without Thaddeus Young (knee) but said he is hopeful for Deron Williams (missed practice with an illness), sees the Nets’ resurgence dating back beyond that Miami defeat.
“I’ve felt good about the way we played since the All-Star break,” Hollins said. “We have a renewed spirit. We’ve played hard, together.
“We’ve overcome adversity. We had some tough losses, we’ve bounced back from them, and we’ve had some big wins. I’ve been proud of the way the group has been playing.”
The Nets have 11 games left — seven of them at home, which hardly is soothing: They are a dismal 13-20 in Brooklyn. Hollins presented specific, technical reasons for the home struggles.
“We don’t play well,” Hollins said.
OK, so maybe it wasn’t that technical. But Hollins said he likes what he has seen in the mini 6-2 spurt overall.
“We’ve come together as a team and we’re playing better,” said Hollins, who indicated veteran Earl Clark, signed after Young’s injury, would continue to play. “We’ve learned what our strengths are, what our weaknesses are, and we try to play to them every game and good things are happening.
“Everybody says, ‘Is this the most important game of the season?’ or ‘Is this a ‘must’ game?’ Every game is a ‘must’ game when you’re trying to make the playoffs and there’s three, four, five teams that are together,” Hollins said.
So should the Nets outlast the Pacers, Hornets and Celtics and grab the eighth spot (and they’re just 1 ½ games behind the seventh-place Heat), they could be a true playoff pest with their veterans. But right now, getting there is the key.
“We’re focused on going one at a time, but we all feel like we’re in a really good place,” said Lopez, now sixth on the Nets’ all-time rebounding list. “In the playoffs, we’d get a fresh light to kind of start over and the way we’re playing now, I’d definitely take that. … The confidence continues to grow every day.”
Even if they’re near impossible to figure out.