NBA

Coach rips Nets, afraid of ‘losing spirit’

DENVER — The Pepsi Center walls didn’t come tumbling down, but neither could they muffle the voice of one very angry Nets coach.

Avery Johnson, calling on his players to “just be a man” defensively and quit making the same tired mistakes over and over, lit into his team yesterday before practice.

The players, who have received continued public support from Johnson, claimed it was his angriest tirade in his tenure as coach.

“There could be some truth to that statement,” Johnson said with a smile. “We continue to stand by them. But the worst thing you can get, especially in our situation, is what I call a losing spirit. We’re trying to guard ourselves against having that losing, ‘poor-me’ spirit. This league is a league of sharks. This is shark-infested water. And you’ll get eaten alive if you don’t have the right attitude mentally and if you’re not ready to play physically.”

Johnson is trying to get his 2-8 Nets to avoid being a happy meal for the 6-4 Nuggets tonight. Johnson explained he is weary of watching repeated mistakes on both ends of the court.

Offensively, the spacing stinks, and most nights it nullifies the talents of star point guard Deron Williams. Defensively, where the Nets rank 26th in scoring and 28th in field-goal percentage, Johnson stopped just short of using the “S” word: soft.

“Defensively, we’ve got to do a better job of giving more resistance when guys are trying to get to their spots, basically giving more fight in certain situations,” he said. “Sometimes it’s mano against mano, and you can’t ask to get bailed out by an official. You’ve got to really just be a man, tough-minded.”

Johnson stressed the mistakes he sees come in areas that have been addressed, like, a gazillion times.

“There are certain areas of our games and our system that we’ve been explaining the correct way to do something and we have been consistently malfunctioning in that area,” the coach concluded, “so they had to understand how important it is to us as a coaching staff.”

Hence, the raised voice that was picked up on recording devices in Newfoundland.

“I am not disappointed or angry [at them],” Johnson said. “I just expect us to stop making the same mistakes over and over again at some point this season.”

He just sounded and acted disappointed and angry.

“It was definitely the angriest I’ve ever seen him,” rookie MarShon Brooks said. “His main point was the little things. They’ve been doing a lot of trapping of Deron, and we haven’t been there in the bailout spots, just the spots we need to be. Little things. He was mad about that because he felt it was something he shouldn’t have to go over with us.”

Yeah, but never assume.

“He’s passionate about playing the right way and executing a certain way,” Kris Humphries said. “It’s better to have a coach get worked up and care versus not care and not say anything.”

No one disagreed, either.

“He was angry because we keep doing the same mistakes over and over again,” said Mehmet Okur, who did a limited practice and will be a game-time decision while Damion James (foot) and DeShawn Stevenson (knee) missed practice and were ruled out for tonight’s game. “We’re trying to be on the same page at the same time, but in the last few games we got confused a little bit. We got panicked a little maybe. But hopefully we learned our lesson.”

If not, the wrath of Avery awaits.