After looking at the video of Wednesday’s 113-107 loss to the Wizards, Nets coach Jason Kidd’s assessment of why his team lost didn’t change.
“We’ve got to rebound the ball,” Kidd said after the team went through a film session but otherwise had the day off Thursday. “It’s understanding the importance of when that team misses the first shot, it’s a big part of us being able to get that stop and go down the other way.”
The Nets will get a chance to redeem themselves on the glass starting Friday night in Philadelphia against the reeling 76ers, as will starting center Brook Lopez. Kidd went out of his way to say Thursday that rebounding is a team responsibility, and it’s not on any one player to grab all of the boards for everyone else.
But it’s also clear the Nets could use their All-Star center — who has developed into the league’s most skilled scoring big — to give them more production on the glass. Lopez enters Friday night’s game averaging 20.6 points on 57.1 percent shooting, but is managing to grab only 5.9 rebounds in 30.6 minutes per game.
“Definitely,” Lopez said Thursday when asked whether he needs to do more work on the glass. “No question.
“A lot of it’s on me. It’s just a matter of doing my job.”
While there’s no question Lopez does clear out the lane for his teammates to grab rebounds — Kevin Garnett, for example, is snatching 18.9 percent of available rebounds when he’s on the floor, per NBA.com’s stats tool — the Nets would be better off if Lopez could also corral a few more of those available rebounds himself.
Entering Thursday’s action, Lopez had grabbed 10.9 percent of available rebounds when he’s on the floor, which ranked 32nd among centers who play at least 20 minutes per game, according to NBA.com’s stats tool. He is behind players such as Miami’s Chris Bosh and Celtics rookie Kelly Olynyk.
“It’s a team,” Kidd said when asked if he would like more rebounds from Lopez. “It’s not just one guy. It’s the five guys out there on the floor.
“We would like to be undefeated. But the thing is it’s not just Brook, it’s everybody being able to gang rebound, team rebound. So, again, you can point to one guy, one play, but it’s not about that. It’s about team rebounding.”
Kidd is right. It wasn’t just Lopez’s man who grabbed rebounds as the Nets were destroyed, 51-31, on the glass by the Wizards, including a 19-5 edge on offensive boards.
But there’s little doubt the Nets would be better off if Lopez could do more damage on the glass, and close in even on teammate Andray Blatche, whose 15.9 percent rebounding rate ranked 19th in the league.
The Nets have just three double-doubles (points and rebounds) through the first 25 games, with Blatche coming up with two and Mirza Teletovic the other.
“I think rebounding, at the end of the day, is just effort,” Lopez said.