BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The Nets bounced back from a disappointing loss to the Milwaukee Bucks with a 121-119 overtime victory over the middling San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.
A win is supposed to be good news. This win is not.
It’s a disappointing win for a number of reasons, chief among them: the fact that the Nets needed overtime despite their status as purported championship contenders, versus the Spurs’ standing as 10th seed in the Western Conference, now nine games below-.500.
Even without Kyrie Irving (available for road games) and Joe Harris (ankle surgery rehab), the Nets still have two sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famers on their roster. The Spurs are missing a number of their best players, including forward Keldon Johnson, lead guard Derrick White and sharpshooter Doug McDermott.
Yet, with their clear advantage in talent on paper, the Nets were never able to create true separation from a far lesser opponent. It’s become a trend that has plagued the team since they returned to play after 13 of their players entered the health and safety protocols.
Slow starts continued to haunt these Nets, who didn’t take a double-digit lead until the final three minutes of the second quarter at Barclays Center.
That double-double digit lead was never safe.
Which brings us to another reason this victory was subpar: Their defense has regressed beyond repair. The Nets have struggled against any perimeter scorer with a speed rating higher than 84. On Sunday, for example, Spurs guards Dejounte Murray, Lonnie Walker IV, Bryn Forbes and rookie Josh Primo were able to combine for 84 of San Antonio’s 119 points.
The Nets defense has been concerning, especially given their standing as a top-5 defense and the league’s No. 1 defense in the opening leg of the season. That effort was against mostly middling teams. They have since regressed to 12th.
Another reason this win isn’t really a win: The Nets needed to ride Kevin Durant and James Harden against a team that likely won’t make the playoffs.
Durant played 44 minutes and Harden played 43. The two combined for 54 points and 18 assists, but will have to take the floor on Monday in Portland after a cross-country flight in a matchup against the Trail Blazers.
Both are expected to play, said Steve Nash, as is Irving, whose presence should alleviate some of those offensive burdens.
Lastly: Nash’s experimental rotations continued on Sunday, when he started rookie David Duke Jr. for the third straight game. Nash said his team has a number of players of similar profiles — DeAndre’ Bembry, James Johnson and Bruce Brown are each hustle players, as is Duke Jr., who finished with six points and five rebounds in his 17 minutes of play. Brown did not play, Johnson played eight minutes, and Bembry saw spotty time before getting the start in overtime.
Yet the Nets were still able to come away with a win, a revelation given they had lost four of their previous five games in disappointing and embarrassing fashion. This win was thanks to rookie Cam Thomas, who hit a go-ahead floater with 1.9 seconds to go in overtime.
The Nets will take this win, as wins have been fleeting since they returned from the health and safety protocols. That is the concerning part of this mid-season crisis.
Wins, especially against lesser competition, should not be difficult to come by for a championship contender.
