Jacque Vaughn stuck to the plan, and the Nets are reaping the benefits.
Immediately after Kevin Durant went down with an MCL sprain on Jan. 8, Vaughn said the team would need to play with more pace and shoot more threes.
Through the first 10 games of Durant’s absence, the recipe has been a success: The Nets have gone 4-6 without Durant, with several encouraging losses — though the team will say they are not in the business of moral victories.
“I think we’ve been able to somewhat form a recipe for how we want to play. I think you see the three ball, so that’s a part of who we are. So being able to shoot 40 threes again, that seems like a pretty good clip for us,” Vaughn said after Monday’s victory against the Los Angeles Lakers. “With Kevin, our pace, we’re probably 14th in the league. Right now, we’re probably eighth or seventh without. So being able to play faster so we can get shots up earlier in the shot clock.
“And then it’s a collective unit on the opposite end of the floor. It won’t look pretty all the time. We’ve used zone before, we’ve played small before, we’ve played big before. So on that end of the floor, we’ll figure it out. We’ve hovered around top 10 in the league, if we can stay in that realm, we’ll be OK. But the fouling, and the free throws, and the rebounding piece, we need to take care of.”
During their Durant-less stretch, the Nets have beaten the Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors, the Knicks and Lakers. They lost to a fully-loaded Philadelphia 76ers team by only four points and the league-best Boston Celtics by 11.
The disappointing losses came against teams considered lesser opponents. The Nets lost to the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder. They also lost to a Phoenix Suns team without both star guards Chris Paul and Devin Booker.
“We just take it game to game. To be honest with you, I’m not really paying attention to the wins and losses, per se,” said star guard Kyrie Irving, who is averaging 31.3 points per game with Durant out of the rotation. “The objective is still the same every day. We prepare to win basketball games, but we look back at the lessons that we’ve learned, whether we were successful at winning or we failed that night by possessions. We’ve just got to do the little things that make us look very very good both offensively and defensively.
“When we’re out of position, when we’re not aggressive enough, the game could go either way. So definitely those six losses I look at is as they could have gone either way if we would have done the little things, but that’s a choice. So hopefully going forward we put our best foot in front of ourselves and just give ourselves a chance to win every single night.”
Irving credited the team’s second unit for stepping up during this stretch. The Nets bench scored 66 points in the victory over the Lakers with both Cam Thomas and Patty Mills scoring 21 points apiece and reserve big man Day’Ron Sharpe hauling in 14 rebounds.
“I just think our group in itself, we’ve gotten past the phase of being uncomfortable in our roles and asking a bunch of questions night to night [about] what it’s gonna look like,” Irving said. “So once we got past that phase, I felt like we were playing some good solid basketball. Just accepting reality for what it is: K’s not in the lineup, T.J. [Warren] not in the lineup, guys are in and out, so it’s gonna leave opportunity for guys that are working extremely hard.
“It’s nothing but joy in my eyes when I see them get rewarded for the hard work they put in. It makes my job a lot easier, and I want to continue to lead by example by putting the work in, too. So when they score 66 points off the bench, that means I don’t have to have a fourth quarter where I’m putting my head down or doing things to keep us in the game.”
The Nets are expected to give an update on Durant — who said in an ideal situation, he would return a few games before the All-Star break — at some point in the next week.
The team is learning to play without him, which can only be a good thing for when he returns to the lineup.