The Brooklyn Nets have the opportunity to turn their season around so that they can firmly put themselves back into the Eastern Conference playoff race with less than 30 games left in the season. However, they will have to do so on the fly and if they’re going to do that, they have to give effort.
In Wednesday’s 136-86 loss at the Boston Celtics, the one thing that stood out was the lack of effort by the Nets. Brooklyn was going up against arguably the best team in the NBA and while the Nets can’t change their talent level, they can change how hard they play on both ends of the floor.
From the opening tip, it seemed that the Nets never made it out of the locker room as the Celtics began the contest on a 16-4 run and never looked back. Brooklyn’s best quarter in terms of point differential was the fourth quarter and that was when some of the players at the bottom of the roster like Trendon Watford and Jalen Wilson got a chance to play.
Wednesday wasn’t a game that the Nets lost on the margins or through being out-schemed. It marked a game where Brooklyn did not show up on either end of the floor because of the lack of effort. Nets guard Mikal Bridges said as much after the contest:
“I think it’s a lot that just kind of came with tonight. I think effort for us, especially defensively, I think we didn’t have that effort. Whatever the game plan we had up there, I think we just didn’t execute it as we should.”
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