MINNEAPOLIS — The Nets continued to roll under the guidance of interim coach P.J. Carlesimo last night, improving to 12-2 since he took over with a 91-83 victory over the undermanned Timberwolves in front of 15,785 inside Target Center.
But with the Nets now facing a road back-to-back in Memphis and Houston this weekend, along with games against the Heat and Bulls next week in Brooklyn, they’ll have to play better than they did against Minnesota, after they committed 15 turnovers and nearly let the Timberwolves come back from a 14-point, second-half deficit.
“We definitely could’ve played better, especially defensively,” said Deron Williams, who finished with 18 points, six rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
“But a win is a win.”
The Nets (25-16) have been doing plenty of winning ever since Carlesimo took over for Avery Johnson late last month. They have now won 10 of 11 in January alone, making Carlesimo the frontrunner for the Eastern Conference’s Coach of the Month award, the same award Johnson won for the first month of the season before being relieved of his duties soon afterwards.
“Absolutely not,” Carlesimo said with a smile when asked if he’d vote for himself to win the award. “Without question … that’s an easy answer.”
Despite extending their winning streak to three games, the Nets couldn’t find a way to put away the Timberwolves (17-22) even though they led the game from wire-to-wire.
Minnesota, which was missing its imposing frontcourt tandem of Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic, cut the lead to two twice early in the fourth.
But the Nets once again received a balanced contribution from their big three of Williams, Brook Lopez (22 points, seven rebounds and two blocks) and Joe Johnson (18 points, three rebounds and three assists), who combined to score 12 straight points for the Nets in the fourth after C.J. Watson opened the quarter with nine straight points to keep the Nets in the lead.
“We don’t have a team where we have to have a guy scoring 35 or 40 for us to win,” Williams said. “We have a balanced team. That’s how we like to play. We like to share the ball, move it around, and get everybody involved.
“We don’t have a ball-dominant guy. It’s fun. It’s more fun that way. I think everyone gets involved that way and it’s a lot more fun.”
Carlesimo attributed some of the issues the Nets had against the Timberwolves to playing “not to lose” against an undermanned opponent in order to keep their recent hot streak going.
“It’s stupid, but if there’s a negative to the streak [we’re on] it’s that we’re playing really good,” Carlesimo said. “The NBA is about coming and playing every night, and you handle the wins and you handle the losses.
“I’m not looking forward to handling the losses, [but] we need to continue to play from day-to-day and we need to rise up to challenges, which we’ve done for the most part.”
The Nets will have a pair of challenges to rise up to this weekend, when they begin one of the more difficult patches of their schedule.
“I’m sure we’ll respond well,” Johnson said. “We’ve been playing great basketball, playing with a lot of confidence. It’s just got to keep carrying on. As our confidence builds, we just have to keep getting better as a team.”