NBA

Nets lighting it up from long range

When the Nets convened for their first training camp under Jason Kidd’s leadership back at Duke University in October, they talked about pounding the ball inside to Brook Lopez and using their size advantage all over the floor to batter and bruise their opponents.

But a funny thing happened as this roller coaster ride of a season progressed. Due to injuries and ineffectiveness through the first two months of the season, the Nets have slowly but steadily moved away from their planned model, and instead have become a team relying on ball movement and firing away from behind the 3-point arc.

“You play to your strengths,” Kidd said after the Nets improved to 12-4 in March with a 114-99 win over the Timberwolves Sunday in Brooklyn. “We have quite a few guys who can make the 3 … right now, that’s what we’re doing very well.”

Through the first two months in which the Nets went 10-21 and primarily played with a lineup featuring Lopez at center and Kevin Garnett at power forward, the Nets averaged just under 20 3-pointers a game and made a little more than seven per, both numbers that ranked in the bottom half of the NBA.

But since Lopez broke his foot and they switched to their smallball lineup featuring Paul Pierce at power forward Jan. 1, the Nets not only have gone 29-12 — the best record in the East over that span — but are among the top three in the NBA in both makes (9.5) and attempts (25.6) from behind the arc. That has helped lead to better offensive efficiency, which they hope to continue Tuesday night against the Rockets at Barclays Center.

“That makes us deadly,” Deron Williams said. “We can spread the floor with Paul at the four. When we’re hitting shots and moving the ball around, it’s fun to play like that. It’s contagious, and I think that makes us dangerous.”

Since acquiring Marcus Thornton from the Kings for Jason Terry and Reggie Evans at the trade deadline, the Nets now have six players — Williams, Pierce, Thornton, Joe Johnson, Mirza Teletovic and Alan Anderson — capable of knocking down 3-pointers consistently. And by having at least three of those players on the perimeter with Garnett (when he’s healthy), Andray Blatche or Mason Plumlee in the paint, there’s a good chance the ball eventually will land in the hands of someone with an open look behind the arc.

“I think we’re the most dangerous team in the NBA from 3-point range,” Teletovic said. “We have so many shooters, it kind of opens up the paint. Once they start to close out the 3-pointer, we’re going to drive more and do what we have to do in certain situations.”

While the NBA has transitioned to higher volumes of 3-point shooting in recent years, there’s precedent for teams bombing away and having successful postseason runs. The Heat won the title last season, for example, while finishing third in the NBA in 3-point makes, while the Mavericks were seventh when they won in 2011 and the Magic led the league in 3s when Dwight Howard led them to the Finals in 2009.

The Nets’ approach has them heading into the playoffs looking like a team that could make a deep run — something that seemed unthinkable three months ago.

“[When] I’m in the game with D-Will, Joe, and [Paul],” Thornton said, “you have to pick your poison, and it makes us all that much better.”