MINNEAPOLIS — Here are my three thoughts on the Nets’ 111-81 loss to the Timberwolves on Friday night:
1. When Jason Kidd was hired by the Nets, he stressed the need for ball movement, to play by the pass instead of settling for one isolation play after another. But the Nets often have reverted to holding the ball and forcing shots in 1-on-1 situations offensively so far this season, something that reared its head again Friday.
How stagnant were the Nets offensively against the Timberwolves? Out of 31 made field goals, the Nets had just seven assists. That’s nearly impossible to do. Ricky Rubio had eight by himself for Minnesota, who, by comparison, had 28 assists on 40 field-goal attempts.
“We have to move the ball,” Kidd said afterward. “We only had seven assists. So, we can throw the ball in the post and isolate someone, but we have to move the ball, and we’re just not doing that.”
A follow-up question was then posed to Kidd, asking whether players were trusting their teammates, and if they were pressing to single-handedly get the Nets out of the hole they find themselves in.
“[When] you see your teammates struggling, you just want to take that shot instead of maybe playing the right way,” Kidd said. “[The Nets] are trying to figure it out. They’re trying to find a way to put the ball in the basket.
They might be trying too hard to do it by themselves, which is only making a bad situation worse for Brooklyn.
2. The beauty of sports is how often things don’t work out anything like they’re supposed to. But Friday’s game was one case where, frankly, it played out exactly as it should have.
The Timberwolves do all of the things the Nets struggle to stop, particularly without Deron Williams and Brook Lopez. They have quick point guards in Ricky Rubio and J.J. Barea who can break down defenses, have a pair of bruising big men in Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic who can both score inside and dominate the boards, and they play a fast-paced style that allows them to get out in transition for easy baskets.
Those are all things the Nets have struggled to deal with since the season began three weeks ago, and the Timberwolves made sure to exploit all of those advantages against the Nets. Love and Pekovic combined for 32 points and 23 rebounds while sitting out for the entire fourth quarter, while Rubio and Barea were able to do what they wanted. The Timberwolves held edges in points in the paint, second-chance points and fastbreak points through the first three quarters when the starters for both teams actually were on the floor.
3. For as bad as the Nets are playing at the moment — and they’re playing terribly, and in a way the struggles go far beyond simply being without Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Andrei Kirilenko — they might have a chance to get themselves on track over the next few days.
Sunday, Brooklyn plays host to the Pistons, which features Brandon Jennings, who admitted Saturday he has no confidence in his shooting stroke, and Josh Smith, who’s gone 5-for-22 in his last two games, including going scoreless Friday. Then, the Nets take on a pair of sub .500 teams in a row, going to Toronto Tuesday and playing host to the Lakers Wednesday.
Yes, of course, the Nets are also under .500 at the moment. In fact, they were one insane Spencer Hawes 3-pointer away from waking up Saturday morning in dead last in the Eastern Conference. But if the Nets are going to start climbing out of this hole they have dug themselves, they have to start somewhere, and playing host to a reeling Detroit team is as good of a place to start as any.