Here is what awaits the Nets starting tonight in Detroit.
Eight games, eight cities, 17 days, four time zone forays, 10 flights and 8,229 miles of fun-filled flying.
And a partridge in a pear tree.
OK, just kidding about the partridge. But no doubt they will see a pear tree somewhere along the longest trip in the team’s NBA-franchise history. They can’t even blame NBA Senior Vice President of Scheduling and Game Operations Matt Winick, who normally plans and plots such stuff.
“I don’t blame Matt,” said Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo.
Nope, the circus is coming in so the Nets are moving out of the Barclays Center, courtesy of the geniuses who brought clowns and elephants into an arena during one of the most important parts of the schedule. While the Nets are fighting for their playoff seeding lives, they will be trekking to Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles for the Clippers, Phoenix, Portland, Denver, Utah and Cleveland.
And they’ll head out in a decidedly itchy mood after getting buried in the fourth quarter by the Hawks in a 105-93 loss last night at Barclays Center. The defeat denied the Nets a chance to move into a virtual tie with the Knicks atop the Atlantic Division, so they’ll head out one full game behind. Carlesimo admits he’s looking for one particular aspect tonight.
“A significantly better defensive effort,” he said.
“We knew it was coming,” said Deron Williams, referring to the trip, not the defeat. “It happens. The arena has to generate money and it’s not just basketball that does that.”
Williams noted that every year the Bulls leave for the circus, the Spurs have the notorious Rodeo Trip and the Lakers and Clippers get temporarily evicted for the Grammys. But those trips usually occur earlier in the NBA season.
“What’s very, very difficult about this is the timing,” Carlesimo said. “It comes late in the year. … You look at the record all year and it’s reflected that the Western Conference has a winning record against the Eastern Conference and it’s very unusual to go out there for more than three or four or max five games.
“To be out there as long as we’re out there is really a challenge. The time of the year is really a challenge. You don’t want this trip in March,” added Carlesimo, who was part of the Spurs’ staff that had to put up with the Rodeo Trip that usually was broken up by the All-Star Game each year.
And that challenge begins with the taste of a rancid, blown opportunity defeat.
“We’ve got to get this behind us. It’s very important,” said center Brook Lopez. “I think we’re going to come out even more focused because of this game even more so and start the road trip off right.”
The one break the Nets get in this trip is at the end — the Cleveland game comes after they’ve been home for three days.
“I remember saying in January that we were going to be gone pretty much the month of March,” said Joe Johnson. “Honestly it’s not that bad. We’re going to play some pretty good teams but it’s kind of spaced out.”