Wednesday marked the last game for the Nets in the friendly confines of Barclays Center for nearly a month, thanks to their eight-game circus trip that begins Thursday night in Chicago and continues after the All-Star break.
But when asked whether or not that will be the toughest part of the schedule, Shaun Livingston had another stretch of the calendar in mind.
“I think the travel was worse the first month,” Livingston said before Wednesday’s 105-89 win over the Bobcats. “The first month was crazy. It was a game here, two weeks away, back-to-back, back-to-back.
“It was just non-stop grueling.”
Livingston said the team’s slow start in November and December, in addition to the various injuries picked up along the way, could be attributed in part to the hectic travel schedule, including four isolated road games and a three-games-in-four-nights West Coast swing in the opening three weeks.
“I think it plays a factor,” he said. “It’s not the main thing, but it plays a factor especially with when you look at chemistry issues and guys having to come together. It definitely plays a factor in us getting off to bumpy start.”
The Nets went with Livingston, Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in their starting lineup Wednesday, hoping to continue the success that group has had.
That starting five has gone 5-1 together, including wins in three straight games. The question after the game was whether Garnett — who has rested on several of the Nets’ second halves of back-to-back games this season — would be available Thursday.
When asked after the game, in which Garnett scored 10 points in just 14 minutes, coach Jason Kidd said he hadn’t talked to the veteran yet and that, “we’ll see.”
Garnett, however, was expected to travel with the team.
The Nets are 1-5 without Garnett this season, with the lone victory on Jan. 4 against the Cavaliers.
In the wake of Derek Jeter’s announcement he will retire at the conclusion of the 2014 season, Kidd — whose playing career coincided with Jeter’s brilliant 20-year run in pinstripes — spoke glowingly of the Yankees captain.
“He’s one of the best,” Kidd said. “To play as a Yankee for that time on the big stage and to be able to deliver each time … he’s everyone’s role model.“As kids grow up playing baseball, they want to be a shortstop, [and] everybody wants to be Derek Jeter. And, for this to be his last year, everybody will miss him. But he had a great run, and hopefully he can end it on a positive note.”