The Bulls will come to Barclays Center tonight as the fourth team with a winning record the Nets have faced within the past week.
The Nets will be hoping for more success this time around.
In each of their last three games against winning teams — the Grizzlies in Memphis last Friday, the Rockets in Houston on Saturday and the Heat in Brooklyn on Wednesday — the Nets were outclassed, looking a step slow at both ends and struggling to stay competitive for all 48 minutes.
“Typical Nets basketball,” a frustrated Gerald Wallace said after they lost 105-85 to the Heat in Brooklyn on Wednesday night. “We don’t play together, careless turnovers, we don’t execute offensively, and defensively we don’t do anything. We don’t defend, we don’t guard the ball, we don’t help each other out.
“It’s the same story as it’s been all season.”
While the Nets have performed well under interim coach P.J. Carlesimo, going 13-5 since he took over for Avery Johnson in late November, they have continued to struggle against quality opponents. The Nets are now 17-0 against teams with losing records at the time the game is played, but just 10-19 against .500 or better opponents.
One issue has been playing complete games against those quality opponents, something the Nets failed to do in each of their three matchups with the Heat. The Nets were competitive in the first half of each of those three games, before falling apart after halftime. In Wednesday’s loss, that meant allowing the Heat to close the third quarter with a 27-6 run that blew the game wide open.
“You can stick your finger on anything you want to stick it on, but it’s just something we’ve got to figure out as a team, how to come out and compete for all four quarters,” Wallace said. “I think we did a great job for the first 24 minutes of the game. They made some shots, they did some good things in the first half, but we were able to keep it close and eventually tie it up at halftime.
“But in the third quarter, it just went haywire from there.”
In addition to their failure to play a full 48 minutes against better opponents, the Nets have also struggled defensively recently, giving up an average of over 108 points per game in their last three losses.
“We’ve got to get some practice time in and go over a few things defensively,” Joe Johnson said. “I know the offense will come, but if we get in a rut offensively, it’ll be a constant night-in and night-out and we’ve slipped defensively.”