If the Nets want to end their first losing streak under interim coach P.J. Carlesimo when they return home to face the Magic tonight, they’ll have to make dramatic defensive improvements.
The Nets saw their play without the ball completely slip away during losses Friday in Memphis and Saturday in Houston, as they allowed their opponents to score a combined 220 points and shoot over 50 percent from the field.
“We aren’t playing our defense,” Gerald Wallace said after Saturday’s 119-106 loss to the Rockets. “We’re playing more into the opponent’s style of play than our defense.
“In the Memphis game (a 101-77 loss) we didn’t rebound, we didn’t do what we were supposed to do … and then in this game we got into an uptempo game, and that’s not our style … [the Rockets] flat-out run, and that’s not how we play.”
The root of those problems has been that the Nets have surrendered the paint, something they have leaned on as an area of strength this season.
Over their last two games, the Nets have given up an astounding 122 points in the paint on 61 percent shooting (61-for-99).
“We’ve done a horrible job defending the other team’s center,” said Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo. “It’s as simple as that. We can say we’re tired, fourth game in six nights on the road and all of that stuff, and this is an excellent offensive team … but we’re just getting annihilated with points in the paint.
“We need to get some better individual defense, and we need some better team defense. But that’s the thing, we had some guys we felt weren’t defending as well as we’d like them to defend, we took them out and then the guys who went in and gave us defense didn’t give us offense. It took us a long time to find a group giving us both.”
Some of that undoubtedly falls on Brook Lopez, the primary defender against Memphis’ Marc Gasol, who had 20 points in the first half Friday, and Houston’s Omer Asik, who had 20 points and 16 rebounds Saturday. But the Nets were also poor in their defensive rotations, particularly against Houston. Against the Rockets, Lopez stepped up to help when an opposing player had gotten into the lane on several occasions, only to have Asik cut to the basket for wide-open layups and dunks when no one was there to support him.
“Maybe we were a step slow,” Lopez said. “I don’t know if I’m communicating enough or contesting enough, but we’ve definitely got to change some things and get back to what we’re doing.”
* One of the many ripple effects of yesterday’s news that Celtics star point guard Rajon Rondo will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL is it opens up a spot on the Eastern Conference All-Star team.
NBA commissioner David Stern determines injury replacements, and could potentially choose one of the three Nets — Lopez, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson — passed over by the league’s coaches in reserve voting.
Lopez was considered to be the biggest snub, as he leads all centers in scoring at 18.6 points per game, while Williams or Johnson would give the East another guard if Stern opts to replace Rondo with another ball-handler.