The Nets played the first two games of Jordi Fernandez’s tenure on the road against fringe playoff teams, and lost them both.
Now comes their toughest test yet, Sunday’s home opener against the best squad they’ve faced — Giannis Antetokounmpo and the championship-contending Bucks.
The Nets have dropped five straight against Milwaukee, who also beat them in the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals. But while Antetokounmpo is still with Milwaukee, the Big 3 are long gone from Brooklyn.
“They’ve got Giannis, who’s a top five player in the world. But for us, we want to do what we can control,” Dennis Schroder said. “[I] always say it is not about no matchups, [it’s] about the team. It’s always about us. If we do the right things and we are the aggressor, I think good things happen.
“We showed that in three quarters [in Atlanta], and just one half [in Orlando]. But we’ve got to put a whole game together. And I think it’s a good opportunity to do it at home first game. And, of course, we got to get Jordi his first win, as well. So we’re going to come out and try to hit first.”
In both of their first two games this season, the Nets got hit first and had to get up off the deck. They trailed 13-4 right out of the gate in Atlanta, and 9-2 in Orlando.
The Nets were physical in both, and scrapped back to seize third-quarter leads in both. But the same Achilles heels cost them in both defeats, committing turnovers and giving away fouls. Their hustle and physicality couldn’t overcome those flaws against the Hawks or Magic, so they’ll definitely need to clean those up Sunday.
“For us, it’s just making us better,” Fernandez said. “So now we’ve gone through two games, and we’ve just got to be better in the third one taking care of the basketball and with that physicality.
“So, a lot of bright spots, shooting the 3 at 38 percent, almost. We’ve just got to shoot more. We’ve got to trade some of those turnovers for 3s and I think we’ll be OK. It’s the beginning of something good. It’s going well, we’ve worked very well. So, we just got to move on to the next one.”
The Nets joined Detroit, Philadelphia, Portland and Utah at 0-2.
“Teams [are] adjusting to our physicality and we have to respond. When they realize we’re picking up full-court, they put their head down and go,” Dorian Finney-Smith said. “That’s when we need to help each other. I feel like we’re still late on that.”
Brooklyn came into the weekend averaging the most fouls committed in the league (31.5) and tied for conceding the second-most free throws (39.5).
Combine that with the third-worst assist-to-turnover ratio (1.13) and it’s easy to see why no amount of physicality and grit is going to overcome their talent deficit.
That talent gap will be even greater against Milwaukee, so they can’t afford that kind of offensive disarray or lack of defensive discipline.
“Just figuring out how to come together,” Cam Johnson said. “Figuring out how to come together when it gets a little tough, and kind of getting organized on both sides of the ball a little better and it will take us a long way.”
Fernandez has both drilled ball movement and gone with Schroder and Ben Simmons in the lineup together to help the passing and playmaking.
But as they’ve gotten tired, their passing has become a problem, with seven third-quarter turnovers in the opener and then eight for 15 points in the third Friday in Orlando.
The Nets’ defense has largely relied on pressing.
But when tired legs started to show up, they got stagnant offensively and stopped penetrating. That led to live ball turnovers and fast breaks going the other way.
The Bucks thrive on just that.
“Every time we don’t touch the paint, nothing good happens,” Schroder said. “We’re going to watch film and then we’re going to get better.”