ATLANTA — The Nets head into Sunday’s opening game of their best-of-7 series against the Hawks, the top seed in the Eastern Conference, with the odds heavily — and understandably — stacked against them.
Atlanta finished the season with a glimmering 60-22 record, having won 19 games in a row at one point during the first half to all but lock up the top seed in the East by the All-Star break.
Brooklyn, on the other hand, limped into the playoffs as the eighth seed in the East — only making it thanks to the Grizzlies beating the Pacers on the final day of the regular season — and are one of two Eastern Conference teams to make the playoffs with a sub-.500 record.
But despite the long odds, there have been several teams in recent seasons that have pulled off the sport’s biggest upset — an eight beating a one seed — proving the Nets may have a supremely difficult task in front of them, but it isn’t an impossible one.
“In any series, somebody is going to have to be the underdog and you have to compete,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said. “There are no gimmes.
“If there were gimmes, then only the champions should play. Then who would they play? Everybody has to go out there and earn their right to go forward.”
Hollins himself has been part of such a series, leading the Grizzlies past the Spurs in 2011, as has Nets forward Thaddeus Young, who was part of a 76ers team that beat the Bulls in the first round in 2012. Those series were impacted by injuries, with Manu Ginobili suffering a fractured forearm for the Spurs and Derrick Rose tearing his ACL for the Bulls.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Nets will be hoping that after spending the season adjusting to one thing after another — from Brook Lopez and Deron Williams returning from surgeries to the introduction of Young following a midseason trade — they can have a similar run to the one the Knicks did in 1999 after closing the season with wins in 13 of their final 19 games.
That year, the Knicks managed to scrape their way into the playoffs as an eight seed in the lockout-shortened season — then made a stunning run to the NBA Finals.
“We had [Latrell] Sprewell and [Marcus] Camby hurt at the beginning of the year, and then we played very well the last 10 games of the season, and that carried over into the playoffs and we got to the Finals,” said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, an assistant under Jeff Van Gundy on that team.
“There’s not a lot of difference in terms of talent [between the one and eight]. … Usually, when you take a hard look at it, you see there was injuries involved, trades, things of that nature and then all off a sudden a team gets rolling and now you’ve got your hands full.”
If the Nets want an example of a team pushing a one seed to the limit, they don’t have to look farther than their opponents last season. The Hawks gave the top-seeded Pacers everything they could handle in the first round a year ago before eventually losing in seven games.
Atlanta had lost All-Star Al Horford for most of the year, but got him back for the series and pushed Indiana all the way to the brink of elimination before losing Games 6 and 7.
“I mean, an NBA team in the playoffs is always somebody to be respected,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “I think when a team believes in what they’re doing and a team makes it to the playoffs, there’s a confidence that comes with making the playoffs, and starting from zero to zero when playoffs start.
“It doesn’t matter what your seed is, it’s a whole other season and everyone thinks they can win. That’s the challenge of advancing in the playoffs.”
Now the Nets have a chance to turn the tables and challenge the Hawks. Starting Sunday, we’ll find out if they have it in them to do so.
