File this under the category of water is wet, pain hurts and murder is not nice.
The Nets have trouble starting games.
There, we said it. Hate to be blunt, but sometimes you just have to spit it out. Maybe they need to warm up longer. Maybe they should start the bench. Maybe they should slip the opposition’s cab or bus drivers a couple of $50s to get lost, but somehow, the Nets need to learn to navigate the mine field that has been the first quarter.
“It’s all mental,” DeShawn Stevenson said.
And statistical, unfortunately.
Drum roll for some, “You got to be kidding me” numbers that show why all too often, the Nets are either out of games by the time the national anthem echoes fade or routinely engaged in furious comebacks.
In 14 first quarters, the Nets have been outscored, 378-269, or 27.0 to 19.2 per game. Opponents have scored 30 or more points in five of the last six first quarters. The Nets have failed to score as much as 20 eight times. In the 14 first quarters, the Nets have outshot their opponents once, at Atlanta on Dec. 30. The Nets were 9 of 22 (40.9 percent), the Hawks were 8 of 21 (38.1 percent).
Through 14 games, the Nets have shot an abysmal 35.4 percent (105 of 297) in first quarters, opponents have blistered them, shooting 53.4 percent (148 of 277). Opponents have shot 50 percent or better 10 times, the Nets once (10 of 19, 52.6 percent) at Denver.
“We’re just digging ourselves such a big hole,” said coach Avery Johnson, whose Nets have a rare home game — their fifth — tonight against Mark Jackson and his Golden State Warriors.
Sometimes, those holes are laughable. In half of the games, seven, the Nets trailed by double digits in the first quarter alone.
“We knew everything wasn’t going to come together overnight,” Deron Williams said. “We’ve been hampered by bad starts, bad first quarters. … So if we could knock those out …”
They would at least have a fighting chance. Granted, things are rough all over, but they seem to be rougher in New Jersey. Not an excuse, just a fact.
No team has played fewer home games than the Nets: four, a mark shared by the Cavaliers who entertained the Warriors last night. Tonight is just the second time an opponent played the day before facing the Nets who have had five back-to-backs — the other team was Phoenix and the Nets won. No team has played more road games — the Nets and Bulls top that list with 10 games on foreign floors. Then there’s the personnel issue.
Consider no Net has started every game and only Anthony Morrow and Shelden Williams have played in all 14. Kind of tough to build chemistry that way.
The Nets have used nine different starting lineups. In 14 games. All things being equal, that translates to 42 different lineups in this 66-game monstrosity — or 53 different lineups over an 82-game schedule. In last season’s fun-filled 82-game romp, the Nets had 24 different starting lineups — or one for every victory.
“No excuses. Everybody has different pockets in their schedule where it’s not favorable. Ours hasn’t been favorable since day one,” Johnson said. “But things will change down the road.”
The Nets will bring up Larry Owens, a 6-foot-7 forward, from the Tulsa 66ers of the D-League. Forward Dennis Horner will be waived to Springfield. Rookie Jordan Williams also may go down.