The Nets certainly looked like a team that fired their coach and only had two practices under their belt with new interim coach Kevin Ollie on Thursday night.
The same flaws were noticeable in the 121-93 blowout loss to the Raptors, especially the Nets’ inability to get fast-break points as they were brutally outscored 46-7 in that area.
“They were getting out in transition. They got about 47 points and it’s tough to win a game like that,” Mikal Bridges said after the Nets’ 24th loss in the last 32 games. “So we’ve just got to be better in transition, but that’s how they play. They play fast and we did a bad job tonight.”
“Not being able to stop them and limit them in half-court situations was a killer for us,” Ollie echoed.
This may be a problem the Nets expected to already have improved since Ben Simmons has been back in the starting lineup. Yet, the numbers don’t show the guard has helped the team keep a fast pace in transition, which was his specialty during his healthy preseason and earlier in the season.
Before Simmons was force to sit out for 42 games with a lower back impingement, his first six games of the season saw him pushing the offense. The Nets averaged 26.5 points off the break while their opponents had an average of 19.83.
In those six games, Brooklyn got the best of each opponent on the break and it went 3-3 with Simmons at the start of the season.
His return from injury against the Jazz on Jan. 29 saw similar numbers. The Nets racked up 28 fast-break points against Utah’s 16. Nevertheless, it has dropped off since.
During Simmons’ return to the city that loathes him, the Nets scored 15 fast-break points against the depleted 76ers’ 29 without Joel Embiid. Following that game and a break against the Warriors, Simmons appeared in four consecutive games before the All-Star break, skipping the last one out of precaution in back-to-back nights against Boston.
In those four games and Thursday night against the Raptors, the Nets have averaged just 12.8 points off the break against their opponents’ 23.
“Turning the ball over. Too many turnovers. Not getting back. … We’ve just got to take more pride defensively,” Simmons said of the stats after the loss.
“Just pride. Regardless of who’s coaching the team or what schemes. … We’ve got to get back. This team is one of the best at getting out and running,” he added.
The Raptors are the best in the league at pushing the pace for points, according to Team Rankings. This season, Toronto has averaged 18.5 points and in their last three games they got away with an average of 32.7. The Nets’ inability to stop them at half court or keep up with them certainly contributed to that number.
In comparison, the Nets sit 14th in the league, holding an average of 14.3 fast-break points per game along with an average of nine points in their past three matchups.
Aside from Simmons’ “pride” diagnosis as part of the issue behind the numbers, Cam Thomas chalked up the large deficit to be the 20 turnovers and shooting only 41.3 percent, in addition to a bit of laziness.
“When it’s live turnovers, it’s tough to get back. Like we can say, we can preach ‘Sprint back, Sprint back,’ but it’s a lot of turnovers. … And obviously some of that just not getting back, some of them you know, we take a shot and we’re just sitting there watching the ball go up. I have a tendency to do it. Sometimes we’re just sitting there watching, but we just got to get better at that and just sprint back and contain the ball and just make them make shots over us. [If] they make shots over us, we’ll live with that.”
The Nets face the Timberwolves on Saturday night, who they lost to 96-94 on Jan. 25 in their last meeting. It was a game without Simmons that saw the two teams tie at 11 points in transition.
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