NBA

Nets rewind: Little chance to keep up with young teams

Here are my three thoughts on the Nets’ 111-87 loss to the Nuggets Tuesday night in Brooklyn:

1. Another young, athletic opponent. Another blowout loss.

It’s like clockwork for the Nets whenever they go up against a younger, quicker foe. They get run out of the building every time.

That was the case again Tuesday night, when the younger, quicker Nuggets wore down the Nets before running them right out of Barclays Center during another awful third quarter.

Sure, the Nets have plenty of injuries right now, with Deron Williams, Paul Pierce, Andrei Kirilenko and Jason Terry all sidelined for extended periods of time. But even with a full complement of healthy players, the Nets wouldn’t have the athleticism necessary to keep up with a team like the Nuggets.

It still remains to be seen how, exactly, they are going to counter these teams. One possibility, which was brought up at shootaround to multiple players, was to pound the ball inside using the massive size advantage the Nets have over virtually every team they face.

After the Nets did that early in the game, feeding Brook Lopez early and often, they went away from it as the game progressed. Lopez took four shots after the first quarter, one after halftime. Especially with the Nets being shorthanded, that’s no way for them to be successful.

2. We saw a little bit of a two-point-guard lineup with Tyshawn Taylor and Shaun Livingston sharing the floor. Given all of the injuries the Nets are dealing with on the wings, playing the 6-foot-7 Livingston at shooting guard makes a lot of sense.

It also would make some sense for them to employ the lineup when Williams returns to the lineup, with Livingston taking over ball-handling duties to allow Williams to go off the ball and focus on scoring – something this team could obviously use.

There is a chance Williams could return Thursday night against the Knicks. The Nets immediately ruled him out of Tuesday’s game when they issued an injury update during Monday’s practice, but listed him as doubtful for Thursday. Given how banged up this team is, if there’s any chance he can be ready in time, you would have to think he would do everything he could to take the floor.

Still, the last time he played, he lasted less than one half before going down with yet another ankle sprain, so he’ll have to pull off a pretty impressive sales job to convince the Nets he’s ready to go.

3. The game was understandably overshadowed by Kidd’s bombshell announcement that assistant coach Lawrence Frank would be re-assigned at the beginning of his pregame press conference.

When Kidd was brought in to be the coach, a big reason he and the Nets said the move would work was because he brought along Frank. Clearly, however, the good feelings between the two men didn’t last too long. Kidd said they had “different philosophies,” and Kidd emphasized on multiple occasions the decision to to send Frank away from the team was his, and his alone.

Without Frank around anymore, everything is going to fall squarely on Kidd’s shoulders. Kidd seemed to indicate he was up for that kind of scrutiny when he was asked if he could have made the move a month ago.

“I’ve been doing this from day one,” Kidd said. “I understand what it means to be a coach and having your guys ready. That’s what I’ve been doing since summer league.”

He’d better be prepared, though, because the Nets are now 5-13 heading into Thursday’s sludge match with the Knicks, a game that means quite a bit to both franchises, even in their current dilapidated states. A loss Thursday wouldn’t put Kidd in as much hot water as his old coach, Mike Woodson, but it won’t help matters one bit.