What’s wrong with the Nets? What isn’t wrong these days, with the team playing sieve-like defense and blowing leads, coming off a winless four-game road trip and mired in a five-game skid.
What did they need to fix coming into last night’s tilt against Charlotte? What didn’t they?
“Everything. Not one area: everything,” said Richard Jefferson, whose struggles have been well-chronicled.
The swingman returned in the first day of the trip after missing five games with a sprained ankle, but averaged just 11.3 points, 4.3 boards and had just 10 free throws.
It prompted Jefferson to say he stunk, and asked about the team, he was just as blunt.
“I think our record indicates that,” Jefferson said. “I haven’t played very well, no excuses. You have to play to the best of your ability and we just haven’t done a very good job of that as a team or me as an individual.” According to coach Lawrence Frank, it’s a matter of losing their winning edge.
“It’s not something you want to go through, but sometimes you have to lose in order to learn how to win again,” Frank said. “It’s hard to win in this league. You have to earn it, validate it, individually, as a team and as a coach every single night.
“We have to find a way to get that winning taste back.
When you haven’t won, you have to fight that much harder, but you can’t press.
It’s not easy. I don’t care how many years you’ve been in the league, how good you are, it’s not easy.” Still, there were at least three auspicious signs coming into last night.
At 5-8, they were still tied with Boston atop the atrocious Atlantic Division. And with 11 of 13 games at home, they started that stretch against a woebegone Bobcats team that was just 3-10, tied for the worst record in the NBA.
But perhaps the least tangible is the most important, they haven’t lost their poise and descended into the infighting and bickering that infect the Knicks.
“The thing I like is guys are still in good spirits. There’s no heads down or guys arguing with each other,” Vince Carter said. “We’re still together.
That’s always a positive.” Their rebounding and interior defense have suffered with Robinson hurt. They’re still sixth in the league in field-goal defense, but they blew second-half leads in Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles, and let the Suns hit 15 of their first 18 shots en route to a 39-point first quarter.
That just isn’t how the Nets play.
“We’ve got to play consistent defense, and for four quarters, not 31/2,” said Carter, undaunted by yet another slow start. “As long as we finish on top at the end, that’s all that matters. It only takes one win to turn things around.” They opened last season 9-12, and followed with 10 straight wins. They opened 2-11 the year before but won 15 of their last 19 to squeeze into the playoffs. But Jason Kidd had opened up that season on the shelf.
This time, all five starters played the entire trip and there are no MVP candidates coming to the rescue, so they’ll have to regain the winning taste themselves.
