TORONTO — Nets coach Jason Kidd insisted before Tuesday night’s game against the Raptors his team would do two things it had failed to do recently: attack and defend the paint, and slow down the opposing team’s transition game.
The Nets went on to reward the faith of their coach by doing exactly that in their 102-100 win.
Over the last five games, since Brook Lopez went down with a sprained left ankle, the Nets have been dominated inside at both ends. But that changed against the Raptors — who came into the game leading the league in second-chance points — as the Nets outscored Toronto 48-28 in the paint, limited the Raptors to just 14 second-chance points while getting 10 themselves, and played them to a near draw in the transition game, where Toronto outscored the Nets 11-10.
“Communicating,” Joe Johnson said when asked for an explanation for what changed. “[Kidd] has been on us about being quiet out there on the court, but tonight we were communicating and keeping guys in the right spots and just helping one another.”
Kidd shortened up his rotation Tuesday night, opting to play Mirza Teletovic over 21 minutes and leaving Reggie Evans out as a healthy scratch.
“The guys that played tonight, whatever minutes they played, they played well, and they played hard,” Kidd said. “Again, we can’t play everybody every night, but we’ve got to now turn the page and get ready for the Lakers, and the guys who didn’t play have to be ready.”
Tuesday night’s game was the first Atlantic Division game of the season for the Nets, who are lucky to be in the league’s worst division after their awful start to the year.
With a win over the division-leading Raptors, the Nets are now just two games out of first place entering Wednesday’s game against the Lakers despite starting the season a miserable 4-10.
The Nets were once again without Andrei Kirilenko (back spasms), Jason Terry (sore left knee) and Deron Williams and Brook Lopez (sprained left ankles). It was the ninth game in a row missed for Kirilenko, the sixth for Lopez and the third each for Terry and Williams. Kidd offered no update on the status of any of them, other than to repeat his daily mantra that each is day-to-day.