MINNEAPOLIS — After the Nets suffered their latest loss Wednesday in Charlotte, coach Jason Kidd said he and the team would be watching film on the game at Thursday’s practice.
Not surprisingly, it wasn’t pretty.
“We watched a lot of really brutal tape today,” Paul Pierce said following the team’s practice at UNC Charlotte before the Nets flew to Minneapolis for Friday night’s game against the Timberwolves.
There were plenty of things to point out in the tape, from the Nets getting destroyed on the offensive glass, where the Bobcats out-rebounded them 17-6, and in points in the paint, where the Bobcats outscored them 52-34.
Charlotte coach Steve Clifford said after Wednesday’s game the biggest reason the Bobcats had so much success getting to the rim was because of the way the Nets were deploying their defense, pushing their bigs up to blow up pick-and-rolls and denying on the wings to try and create turnovers.
Kidd said though the Nets have defended the pick-and-roll in different ways this season as they struggle to find a consistent answer defensively, the biggest issue so far has been effort.
“We’ve played it both ways … we’ve sat back and played up,” he said. “The effort for us has to be there. It has to be a constant, and it hasn’t been. No matter what scheme you go with, you’ve got to give the effort.”
After reinjuring his sprained left ankle in the second quarter of Wednesday’s loss, Deron Williams sat out of practice and doesn’t seem likely to play Friday against the Wolves.
“He’s sore,” Kidd said.
In addition to Williams, Brook Lopez remained out with a sprained ankle of his own and seems to be in danger of missing his fourth straight game since landing on Kevin Garnett’s foot late in the fourth quarter of the Nets’ win in Phoenix last Friday.
“We’ll see how he feels,” Kidd said, adding he hadn’t talked to trainer Tim Walsh and Lopez would continue to receive treatment. “He felt a little bit better today. But we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”
Jason Terry missed Thursday’s practice for personal reasons.