NBA

Nets rewind: Garnett must be handled with caution

Here are three thoughts from the Nets’ 92-76 loss to the Bulls in Chicago Thursday night:

1. For all of the things that have gone wrong or have been issues this season for the Nets, the thing fans seem to harp on most is the minutes limits for Kevin Garnett and Nets coach Jason Kidd’s sitting him periodically in games.

Fans claim the Nets either aren’t interested in winning games or they should realize Garnett can handle playing more minutes than he has.

Here’s the thing: He can’t. That’s not a knock on Garnett – he’s the preeminent defensive power forward of his era, one of the best players of all time and an undisputed culture changer in the locker room. But he’s also a 7-footer that is 37 years old and has played more than 50,000 minutes in his career, and is now playing center on a daily basis since Brook Lopez’s season-ending foot injury in late December.

In addition, after playing Thursday night, Garnett has only sat out for 12 of the second halves of back-to-backs the Nets have had. He’s on pace to finish far below the 20 games missed that Kidd threw out as a possibility back in September.

If the Nets want any chance of being successful in the playoffs, they need Garnett healthy and able to play anywhere from 25-30 minutes – if not more – each game. To have him able to do that, they need to rest him periodically throughout the season and to manage his minutes on a nightly basis. That’s simply the truth.

2. Speaking of Garnett, Thursday’s game was just the latest example of how the Nets have struggled to slow down bigger teams when playing with the small-ball starting lineup that’s helped turn the season around over the past six weeks.

This is not a Garnett issue. He’s played well defensively at center while doing a fine job on the boards in the minutes he’s playing. The problem comes when Paul Pierce is forced to try to box out a regularly sized power forward such as Carlos Boozer or Taj Gibson of the Bulls, as opposed to a more slender option at that spot like Charlotte’s Josh McRoberts, whom he went up against the night before in Brooklyn.

The teams the Nets have lost to since the new year – twice to Toronto and once each to the Thunder, Pacers, Pistons and Bulls – have something in common: They play two traditional big men. Finding a way to combat this look after the All-Star Break will probably be the biggest thing for Kidd and his staff will have to address.

3. Even after a loss it’s useful to look at where the Nets are considering the shape they were in on Jan. 1, coming off a humiliating loss to the Spurs in San Antonio and heading into a game against the Thunder with a 10-21 record with little reason for optimism.

But the Nets engineered a fourth-quarter comeback to win that game in Oklahoma City, and have now gone 14-6 in 2014 after Thursday’s loss wrapped up the first half of the season.

With a favorable schedule ahead and trailing Toronto by 3 1/2 games in the Atlantic Division, there’s still – amazingly – plenty to play for in Brooklyn. Only time will tell if the Nets can replicate their recent form across the final two months of the regular season.