NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets have been at their best this season when they have played in transition thanks to the amount of athleticism and shooting they have on the floor at any given time. However, ever since Ben Simmons went down with his latest injury, the Nets have been unable to play much in transition recently.
“It goes to a little bit of us not playing in the full-court,” Brooklyn head coach Jacque Vaughn said after Sunday’s 121-99 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Nets scored just 14 points on the fastbreak which would rank them around middle-of-the-pack according to teamrankings.com. Brooklyn’s bread-and-butter this season has been trying to score before the opposing defense gets set in its half-court defense.
“When you play in the half-court with teams, now you have to have multiple drive-and-kick opportunities when they have a big at the rim,” Vaughn continued. Throughout the majority of Sunday’s loss, 76ers center Joel Embiid rarely had to leave the paint other than to avoid having a defensive three seconds violation called on him. The Nets’ centers in Nic Claxton and Day’Ron Sharpe do not shoot the ball well enough to pull opposing bigs away from the rim.
Since it was rare for there to be a point where Claxton and/or Sharpe were not in the game, Embiid, and his backup Paul Reed, were able to play towards the paint and better able to help on drives. Brooklyn shot the ball well, 46.9% from the field and 39.3% from three-point land, but they shot the ball just 81 times, including just 28 threes. The 81 shot attempts were their lowest in a game this season and the 28 three-point attempts were the second-lowest.
In all, the Nets were unable to get much going after the last four minutes of the second quarter when the 76ers finished the period on a 20-5 run. “When you don’t execute, then that allows them to have turnovers and be able to run on us,” Vaughn explained.
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