PHILADELPHIA — Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton has a tough task ahead of him as the primary defender on potential NBA MVP Joel Embiid. The good thing is, Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has devised a plan to make sure that Claxton doesn’t have to handle that battle solely on his own. No one defender can stop Embiid. It has to be a team.
“It was a team effort,” Claxton said after putting up five points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks in Saturday’s 121-101 Game 1 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Claxton was the primary defender on Embiid, but Brooklyn had a game plan in place to make sure that Embiid was doubled whenever he touched the ball to prevent him from getting easy looks at the basket. “You know, all five guys on the court, it was everybody’s job to try to slow him down. But, then we opened up a lot of open shots for them. So, we got to adjust and figure some things out,” Claxton continued.
Claxton, along with the rest of the Nets, did a good job on limiting Embiid’s impact on the game. While he had 26 points, Embiid had just 15 shots because of how persistent Brooklyn was in doubling him. That defensive approach led to guys like James Harden (23 points) and Tobias Harris (21 points) getting theirs. Time will tell if the strategy will eventually favor the Nets.
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