The Brooklyn Nets are 2-8 to start the season and head into Wednesday’s game in New Orleans after a blowout loss in Dallas exposed a problem the team itself admits is self-inflicted: turnovers.
Brooklyn lost to the Mavericks 130-93, a game in which the Nets committed 21 turnovers that turned into 25 Dallas points. That followed a 124-121 loss in Atlanta the night before in which Brooklyn gave the ball away 22 times for 28 points off those turnovers.
Coach Jordi Fernández held a road practice in Dallas before the New Orleans game, with an emphasis on both execution and chemistry.
“That was one of my points after the [Dallas] game; it’s what we need to not only get better, but also come together,” Fernández said. “Our practice, the energy was outstanding and we got better. So right now we want to go out there and play a good brand of basketball.”
Forward Michael Porter Jr. said the team needed to guard against letting the slow start sink morale.
“There’s a lot of things to be down about. But it’s a long season, and if we get down already, then it’s going to be a longer season,” Porter Jr. said. “So coming here with good energy and get better was what we needed to do.”
The turnover numbers put Brooklyn among the league’s worst. Entering Tuesday, the Nets ranked third worst in the NBA in turnovers and turnover percentage, and fourth worst in points allowed off turnovers.
Fernández pointed to spacing and organization as the root causes rather than carelessness.
“Yeah, it’s pretty simple, right? I know the guys are not trying to turn it over, so put less pressure on yourself when you make those decisions,” Fernández said. “It’s more about our spacing and then how we do from there because we’re pretty unorganized early and then that doesn’t help. So I don’t want them to play tentative; I want them to play aggressive, and making their decisions and playing very hard.”
He added that on defense, the priority for the next stretch of games is ball pressure and communication.
“And then defensively it’s going back to what is going to make us be a very good defensive team is ball pressure first. Build our trust through communication, our coverages, and then finish with multiple efforts,” Fernández said. “We’ve shown it at times, and now in this next set of five games we want to see improvement.”
Center Day’Ron Sharpe said the fixes are more about execution than scheme.
“That’s what we’re going over, so that’s all I know,” Sharpe said. “Especially transition, just get into our spots of transition and just being aggressive and making the right play. We’re all basketball players, we all know what to do, so just having faith in what we work on and hopefully that transitions to win.”
Porter Jr. said much of the breakdown comes from misreading how defenses are guarding Brooklyn’s actions.
“(It’s) reading how the defense is guarding us. Sometimes they’re switching and we’re not having the right reads off of that,” Porter Jr. said. “So we slowed down some parts of practice and walked through the different ways we can attack different coverages when teams are staying with their own vs. switching vs. top locking. All those things will help.”
He said the team has no option but to treat the losing start as a teaching moment.
“I mean, we’ve got no choice. Any trial or tribulation can be viewed as a lesson, and that’s what we’re choosing to do,” Porter Jr. said. “We’re just trying to grow as a team because we’re stuck with each other. And we’re right where we wanna be: here. So we have no choice but to get better.”
