The Brooklyn Nets rank sixth in the NBA in defensive rating this season – a massive improvement from the team’s standing last season – but the Nets just lost three consecutive games at home allowing the likes of Joel Embiid, Eric Bledsoe and Ja Morant to have huge games and power their respective teams to victory.
Perhaps more alarmingly, the Nets have been outscored by a combined 12 points in the third quarter in the three losses, and by a combined eight points in the fourth.
After the Nets fell 118-104 on Monday night and allowed the backcourt duo of Morant and Desmond Bane to combine for 65 points, James Harden said the Nets need to make a fix – but called it a “pretty easy” adjustment.
"We've let teams come here and do what they want, get any shot that they want, and they're capitalizing"
James Harden talks about the Nets' defensive issues and overall play: pic.twitter.com/HGI6F3z7XK
— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) January 4, 2022
“We gotta go out there and just do it. It’s pretty easy. And do it consistently. Second, third efforts, having each other’s back. Somebody comes over and helps, the next man helps that person and just be on a string. It hasn’t been that way. We’ve let teams come in here and do what they want, get any shot that they want, and they’re capitalizing.”
The Nets will get a chance to bounce back on Wednesday on the road in Indiana, where the team is expecting Kyrie Irving to make his long-awaited season debut.
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