PHILADELPHIA — The Nets have to fix their broken offense for the stretch run. Surprisingly, facing the 76ers gives them a chance to do that Thursday night.
Normally, returning East for the finale of a taxing seven-game road trip — the first six all out West — is a recipe for disaster. That’s especially true when playing a team as loaded as the Sixers, currently third in the Eastern Conference. But if styles make fights, the Nets (38-37) could have a puncher’s chance in this slugfest.
While the Nets’ attack has sputtered since the All-Star break, and gone into an outright tailspin since Allen Crabbe’s latest injury, they have excelled offensively versus the Sixers. The Nets, with Spencer Dinwiddie, D’Angelo Russell and an ability to put the ball on the floor and drive, have given Philadelphia fits.
“I’m not sure. I know Spencer particularly has had some success the way he drives the ball, D’Angelo. But, look, they have success against a lot [of teams]. They’re our engine, those guys,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Listen, Philly, I have lot of respect for their defensive game, their length. Obviously this is kind of a new Sixer team we’re playing. It changes it a little.
“And with our offensive struggles since the All-Star break … we’re doing a little better. We had a few good games. Our transition offense has improved, so I’m happy with that. [But] these are always the most difficult games, coming back from a road trip [to] the West Coast, first game against an East Coast team. We’re going to have to be ready physically for a battle.”
The Nets have won two of their three meetings with the Sixers, getting to the rim in all of them. The Nets have averaged 124.7 points on white-hot 46 percent shooting, both their second-best against any foe other than the Rockets.
“Kenny’s done a great job. They have the pieces that fit that style of play. … They just are hard to guard,” 76ers coach Brett Brown said Wednesday, echoing praise he gave on the Nets’ last trip to Philadelphia, a 127-124 Brooklyn win Dec. 12.
“If you really study out matchups with Brooklyn, we have a hard time defending them. Any team that has multiple live-ball guys that can be put in pick-and-roll, can be put in isolation, that’s a hard team for us to guard.”
But Thursday, the Sixers won’t have to guard Crabbe, whose injury coincided with the start of the Nets’ offensive woes.
After previously missing 26 games with a right-knee injury, Crabbe finally was playing well when he was felled by the same knee again, robbing the Nets of his much-needed floor spacing.
Crabbe, who has not played since the Nets’ loss at the Thunder on March 13, was a stellar plus-62 in the five games before he got hurt, plus-39 in a rout of the Mavericks and plus-23 in a blowout win over the Pistons. It’s no coincidence the Nets were 4-1 with the league’s second-best plus-minus and 12th-best field-goal percentage.
But they have gone 2-3 since Crabbe went down. They’re 21st in plus-minus and next-to-last in shooting.
“We obviously miss AC. There’s just no doubt about it,” Atkinson said. “We miss his shooting.”
There doesn’t seem to be any sign of the Nets getting their highest-paid player back any time soon. He didn’t participate in Wednesday’s practice at Temple University.
“No, still getting treatment, taking care of it,” Atkinson said. “No timetable.”
The question is, with less than two weeks left in the regular-season — and no promise of the postseason — when will he return?
Nobody on the team has mentioned surgery, but with Crabbe having missed 32 games as a result of two injuries to the same knee and no return in sight, it’s a concern. And with the Nets vying for both the playoffs and potentially pricey free agents this summer — and Crabbe under contract for next season at $18.5 million — it’s a big one.
