INDIANAPOLIS – Here are three thoughts from the Nets’ 105-91 loss to the Pacers in Indianapolis Saturday night:
1. Perhaps Paul Pierce had a point.
The veteran small forward publicly questioned the decision to continue having him come off the bench following the Nets’ blowout loss to the Bulls on Christmas Day in Brooklyn, saying his inconsistent play in recent games could be attributed to inconsistent minutes. After coming off the bench in seven of the previous eight games, Pierce returned to the starting lineup for both Friday’s win in Brooklyn against Milwaukee and Saturday’s loss at Indiana.
And, in both games, Pierce played well. He was arguably the best player on the floor for the Nets on Saturday, scoring 18 points while going 8-for-14 from the field. Given all of the other issues the Nets have right now, getting Pierce going would certainly be a positive development.
2. Saturday’s game was yet another that exposed the Nets’ athletic deficiencies on the perimeter.
Just as they had in the meeting between the two teams Monday in Brooklyn, the combination of Paul George and Lance Stephenson on the wings utterly controlled the game at both ends.
George finished with 24 points, three rebounds, two assists and three steals while shooting 9-for-13 from the field – including 3-for-6 from 3-point range – while completely shutting down Joe Johnson (nine points on 4-for-12 shooting) at the other end. Stephenson, meanwhile, nearly had his fourth triple-double of the season – he finished with 23 points, nine rebounds and seven assists – and was able to get to wherever he wanted on the court. It’s hard to see a way the Nets are going to combat these problems, given the limitations of their roster, but it’s one of many things they have to work on.
3. The Nets came into the season focused on being a team that played through Brook Lopez in the post, and used their size across the roster to batter and bruise teams down low. But with Lopez out for the season and with Andray Blatche away from the team for an unknown period of time — missing at least the previous two and next two games for personal reasons — that’s not something they can do anymore.
Instead, the Nets now have to be a team that relies on its ability to space the floor and hit shots from behind the arc — much like the strategy the Knicks used to great success last season. That’s a strategy the team can employ whether they play someone like Paul Pierce at power forward, as they did in Friday’s win over Milwaukee, or Mirza Teletovic, as they did in Saturday’s loss to Indiana. Both are capable of hitting 3s, spacing the floor and creating off the dribble if the situation presents itself.
Without Lopez and Blatche, this is how the Nets need to play. Pierce was right saying “if you live by the 3, you die by the 3” after Saturday’s loss (in which the Nets went 8-for-21), but the Nets may not have a better choice right now.