Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has had to adapt how his creates his gameplan in the wake of how much the team has changed since the trade deadline. The team that he leads now is younger and has more energy, but is less experienced than the veteran teams that were led by Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
In Tuesday’s 118-104 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, that inexperience showed up in the second half. Despite a first half in which Brooklyn played exceptional basketball en route to building a 15-point lead on the Bucks, the Nets’ second half was the opposite. Part of the reason for the shift in performance was because Brooklyn being unable to shoot the ball well in the second half combined with the fact that they were unable to stop the Bucks at any point.
After shooting 53% from the field in the first half, Brooklyn shot 36% in the second half and that led to Milwaukee winning the final 24 minutes 66-42. The Nets had issues with turning the ball over too as they had 17 turnovers that led to 22 points for the Bucks. Vaughn reacted postgame to his team’s poor performance in the second half while saying that his players did what they were supposed to do in the beginning:
“I love how our group was on the bench. First of all, the communication, I think we were locked into the game plan. Our approach at the beginning of the game was really good, gave ourselves a chance at halftime. I think overall, it’s a message for us to be able to to sustain this thing and be able to do it in the third quarter and fourth quarter against a elite team. When we’re not shooting well, I think we went 4-for-19, there was a stretch there from three. So, the difference was they (the Bucks) got to the rim. And, we shot some mid range (shots) at that time. So, that conversion rate is definitely in their favor.”
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