There have been plenty of benefits for the Nets since switching to their smallball lineup at the start of January — one that helped give life to a season that, until that point, looked as if it were quickly slipping away. But by becoming a perimeter-oriented team with Paul Pierce, a natural small forward, sliding to power forward and Kevin Garnett moving to center, the Nets have become a team with virtually no inside presence.
That shift in philosophy came back to haunt the Nets against the Celtics on Friday night, as they went 0-for-17 from 3-point range in the first half and finished the game 4-for-30 from behind the arc on their way to a disappointing 91-84 loss in Boston. The reeling Celtics had entered the game with losses in seven of their last eight games.
“Yeah, that’s our style,” Pierce said after losing in his second game back in Boston as an opposing player. “It’s no secret. We’re a small team. … We don’t rebound well, we force turnovers, we shoot 3s.
“We forced turnovers, we didn’t get easy opportunities, and the easy opportunities we got, we missed. So when those things happen, things don’t seem to go our way. But I think the way we’re playing, on most nights it’s been going our way since the new year, so it’s just one of those nights.”
It goes without saying the Nets, who are back in Brooklyn on Sunday night against the Kings, had an off night in Boston, with nearly all of those 30 attempts from 3-point range open ones that rolled around the rim and spun out.
Because of the way the Nets are playing, they don’t really have a post presence on their roster, given that they’re playing only one big at a time on the floor. Both Kevin Garnett and Andray Blatche are often more comfortable playing on the perimeter shooting jumpers, and Mason Plumlee’s offensive game is mostly limited to finishing putbacks and dunks at the rim.
In fact, since the Nets switched permanently to the smaller lineup on Jan. 1, they are tied for third in the NBA in 3-pointers attempted per game (25.1) after being 21st in the league with 19.9 attempts per game during the first two months of the season, when Brook Lopez was the team’s primary focal point before he went down for the season with the latest injury to his right foot.
That means if the Nets have a night like the one they had in Boston, when they’re getting open looks and the shots are not falling, they don’t have much of a Plan B to fall back on. Friday’s game was the second in recent weeks — including when the Nets went 2-for-23 in a loss at Golden State on Feb. 22 — that the Nets could point to their poor 3-point shooting as the main reason for the defeat.
“Kind of,” said Shaun Livingston, when asked if this was something this version of the Nets will simply have happen to it from time to time. “But we have to be able to figure it out. We’re smart enough and I think we’re savvy enough to figure out the game as we go.
“They didn’t have any shot blockers, and all their bigs had fouls. We have to recognize that, and do a better job of recognizing that and attacking.”
Given the way the Nets are playing now, it’s hard to believe there won’t be at least another game or two like this over their final 22 games of the season.
But their goal is to try and avoid putting themselves in a situation where they will lose because of a poor shooting night from the outside.
“We’ve just got to make sure it doesn’t happen anymore,” Joe Johnson said. “We’ve just got to keep attacking. Keep playing hard and let our defense dictate our offense.”