Slumping Nets enter crucial stretch in playoff bid
NEW YORK – The Brooklyn Nets are on the brink of sliding down to the play-in tournament after dropping their fourth straight loss.
Donovan Mitchell exploded for 31 points, including a highlight dunk over Japanese forward Yuta Watanabe, to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers past the skidding Nets 115-109 on Tuesday night (Wednesday, Manila time) at the Barclays Center.
EVERY ANGLE of Donovan Mitchell's monster dunk tonight ???? pic.twitter.com/CPb9KMRp75
— NBA (@NBA) March 22, 2023
The Nets (39-33) are now 7-11 since No. 7 Kevin Durant and No. 11 Kyrie Irving left the team in haste at the trade deadline. Their lead over the idle Miami Heat (39-34) has shrunk to just half-game, with only 10 games left in their schedule.
By the end of this week, they could be out of the top six and fall into the play-in tournament if their slide continues.
Their next two games — a rematch with the Cavaliers on Thursday and the Heat on Saturday — are shaping up to be their most important games in this stretch run.
Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn expanded his rotation to 10 as he shuffled his players to find the right combination to counter the Cavaliers’ twin towers of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley and Mitchell’s dynamic scoring.
“As we go down the stretch of the season, I need to see who was going to be in the stretch run for us. Tonight was a chance for us to get a look,” Vaughn explained after the loss.
Joe Harris got an extended look as he played more minutes than Seth Curry. Watanabe played over Cam Thomas. But it was second-year big man Day’Ron Sharpe who showed readiness.
Vaughn went with Sharpe over starting center Nic Claxton to close out the game, and he helped the Nets make the game interesting in the end.
Sharpe, the 29th overall pick of the 2021 NBA Draft, matched his career-high in scoring with 20 points. He also pulled down 11 rebounds, nine coming in the offensive glass.
Sharpe scored eight of the Nets’ last 10 points as they came within five in the final 16 seconds, cutting what was once a mighty 24-point Cavaliers lead in the second half.
“Ron (Sharpe) did an excellent job of going after rebounds tonight,” Vaughn said. “So, give him credit for being ready, being a professional, and stepping up when his number is called.”
Sharpe cited his conditioning and building good habits at practice.
“For me personally, I just tried to take every day like I'm gonna start, playing 40 minutes,” Sharpe said. “I live every day trying to get some conditioning. And just repetition. Repetition on the same things that I'm gonna do when I'm on the court. So, I feel like just me doing that all year long has helped me.”
Sharpe picked up from where he left.
The backup big man had five points and five rebounds in eight minutes of mop-up duty during garbage time in Sunday’s loss to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.
“He was locked and loaded, ready even at the end of the game,” Vaughn said. “So, he got rewarded for that.”
Sharpe joined Brook Lopez (January 30, 2015 vs. Toronto) and Jayson Williams (June 6, 1997 vs. Indiana) as the only players in franchise history to produce 20+ points, 10+ rebounds and eight or more offensive rebounds in a game off the bench.
The 21-year-old reserve center provided the inside presence that Vaughn was desperately looking for to spread out the offense of their remade roster devoid of Durant and Irving’s three-level scoring.
“We're a team that has to shoot threes. That's what we're comprised and we got to make them,” said Vaughn. “So, it puts a premium effort on rebounding and turning people all over if we don't [make them], we've got to make shots.”
The Nets, however, only hit 9 of 33 from behind the arc.
“We want the looks [of those 3-point attempts]. You gain confidence by making some of those looks. We did get to some mid-range shots tonight. Those were, at times, good for certain individuals,” Vaughn said.
“We did attack the rim, though, so that balance of attacking the rim, making the defense collapse while also shooting threes. You know it's the Holy Grail.”
They negated their poor outside shooting by outscoring the Cavaliers 19-10 in second-chance points. They crashed the boards, outrebounding the Cavaliers 49-34, including 19-8 in the offensive glass, thanks mainly to Sharpe’s effort.
Vaughn saw a silver lining in their skid with the growing game of a kid.
But he better be careful in toeing the delicate line between developing and winning if they’re looking to advance to the playoffs, as time is running out fast this season.
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Alder Almo is a former senior sportswriter for Philstar.com and NBA.com Philippines. He is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes for the New York-based sports website empiresportsmedia.com.
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