TORONTO — The Nets find themselves in the unique position of being strong favorites heading into the start of their first-round playoff series with the Raptors on Saturday afternoon despite being the lower seed and finishing the regular season second to Toronto in the Atlantic Division.
Of course, the Nets have been in an unique position since before the season, considering owner Mikhail Prokhorov is shelling out more than $190 million to put together this roster, one that was expected to challenge for a championship this season.
Now the playoffs have arrived, and all the pressure is on the Nets to avoid a second straight first-round exit. This one would come against a team with one combined All-Star appearance and virtually no playoff experience.
But after righting the ship following a dreadful opening two months and playing as well as anyone in the league since the start of 2014, the Nets enter the playoffs confident they can play with anyone.
Kevin Garnett, asked Friday after practice if he thought the Nets could make a long postseason run, said: “I do. We have a lot of different weapons here, a lot of experience mixed with young talent. I do.”
They’re certainly expected to at least make it to the second round — where a potential showdown with the two-time defending champion Heat awaits — despite lacking homecourt advantage to the third-seeded Raptors, in large part because of the massive gap in playoff experience between the two teams.
The starting five for the Nets has played in a combined 399 playoff games, including 381 starts, while the Raptors’ starting five has a combined 24 playoff games and no starts between them, with key contributors DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas all set to make their playoff debuts.
“I think it’s important starting out on the road, being a veteran team to kind of stay together,” Shaun Livingston said of the Nets’ edge in playoff experience. “They are going to try to feed off their crowd and their energy, which is what they are supposed to do as the home team.
“We’ve just got to stay composed and stay together, understand they are going to make their runs, but it’s about us and what we do.”
The Nets downplayed the notion they were happy to draw the inexperienced Raptors rather than the battle-tested Bulls as a result of losing four of their final games of the regular season.
“Well, for one, I don’t play on teams that go out there and try to lose games,” Paul Pierce said. “So, whatever belief they have, that’s what they’re going to have. And we didn’t care what matchup we had, second, whether it’s going to be Chicago or Toronto.
“We knew it was going to be inevitable it would be one of those two, regardless. So at the end of the year we had little injuries where we tried to rest guys and at the end of the day, we was going to go on the road anyway and be the fifth or the sixth seed. Both of those teams proved to be really good teams, really elite teams in the Eastern Conference. Either road we took, it was like you’re going to walk over nails or through thorn bushes. You’ve got to take one of the roads.”
The one they took is likely the easier one, and has them favored to make it to the matchup they have wanted since this team was assembled: a showdown with Miami.
That, however, will mean avoiding a loss in the first round to the Raptors, which would be a disappointing result given the expectations the Nets have placed upon themselves as a result of their price tag and talent level. The Nets aren’t shying away from those expectations as the playoffs get underway.
“If we can stay healthy, I definitely believe that we can play with anybody in the Eastern Conference and we can beat anybody in a seven-game series in the Eastern Conference,” Pierce said.
“Things just got to come together and I think they are right now. We’re full-strength, and like Kevin says, ‘Anything is possible.’ ”