In Game 1 of their opening round series with the Atlanta Hawks, the Nets hung around for awhile with No. 1 seed Atlanta and even made a late-game push for the lead that ended up falling short. Game 2 was very similar, as Brooklyn was within double figures for much of the night and held a lead late in the third quarter.
However, Brooklyn’s offensive execution faltered down the stretch as the Nets–in Joe Johnson’s layup and Deron Williams’ open 15-foot jumper–just couldn’t make the necessary shot to regain the lead or even tie the score after the Hawks fought back. After two decent performances, on the road no less, against the Eastern Conference’s best team, all the Nets have to show are two losses and a major deficit in this best-of-seven series.
Lo, there is hope yet for Brooklyn! There were a lot of encouraging signs from the first two games, even if they didn’t end up in the result the Nets wanted. Here are some of the most important, and easiest ways, Brooklyn can claw into its deficit on Saturday afternoon as the series shifts to Brooklyn and the Barclays Center:
1. Make three-pointers, especially those of the uncontested variety
It’s no secret the Nets aren’t a very good perimeter team, as referenced by Brooklyn’s atrocious 33.1 percent three-point shooting from the regular season. That was bad for fifth-worst in the entire NBA. The only teams which converted on less long balls? The interior-focused Celtics, in-perpetual-disarray Nuggets, tanking 76ers and offensive-inept Hornets.
Through two playoff games, the Nets are third-worst from three percentage-wise at under 30 percent (28.3%), which is even worse than Boston (30.2%). The Raptors and Bucks, only postseason participants worse from three so far, are a collective 0-5 in their series, which says everything about the important of making triples as you need to know.
Brooklyn was 5-of-20 from three in Game 1 and a slightly better 8-of-26 in Game 2, both marks which are made worse by the fact that most of the attempts were taken with none-to-minimal defensive interference. The biggest members of the three-point brick party are Johnson (3-of-14) and Bojan Bogdanovic (5-of-17), who the Nets need to make important when the Hawks’ stingy defense allows them. It makes winning harder when those good looks, off actual solid offensive movement, don’t fall.
2. Limiting turnovers would be nice, no?
Atlanta is a good defensive team, for sure, but the rate at which the Nets have been giving away possessions via turnovers is staggering and, frankly, may have been the difference in Game 2. Brooklyn, respectively, turned the ball over 17 and 16 times in its first two games, leading to a total of 43 Hawks points. The total point differential of Games 1 and 2 was 12, if you were wondering.
Averaging 16.5 turnovers, the Nets are second to the Bulls (17.3, up 3-0 over Milwaukee) in losing the ball and third-worst in turnover ratio (five more committed than forced). Add in Brooklyn’s dreadful 1.24 assist-to-turnover ratio, and you realize there’s a pretty good reason as to why they have yet to win a game this postseason. You just can’t give away possessions–and points, when the turnovers are live–against good teams and not expect to get significantly punished.
Jarrett Jack and Thaddeus Young, Brooklyn’s two Georgia Tech products, incidentally, have collectively accounted for nearly half of the Nets’ 33 turnovers with 16 between them two. This means they have each given up four potential field goal attempts in each of the series’ first two games. Need I remind you the total point differential is 12?
3. Keep up the strong rebounding
I don’t have to be all negative in this post as the Nets have actually consistently done one thing well this series: rebound. Brooklyn won the rebounding battles in each of the first two games by eight boards, which has the effect of somewhat reducing the effect of the Nets’ exorbitant turnovers.
Helping out this fact is that the Hawks aren’t a very good rebounding team themselves. During the regular season, Atlanta was dead-last in the NBA in offensive rebounding rate (21.4) and 23rd-best in defensive rebounding rate (73.4). The Nets weren’t killing it on the glass, either, but they were significantly better than Atlanta in both categories. That’s an advantage Brooklyn can actually claim to have, and the Nets need to keep exploiting it in this series.
4. Cut into Atlanta’s passing lanes
The Hawks have averaged 23 assists per game thus far on 34.5 made field goals. Now, Atlanta hasn’t exactly shot lights out or assisted on an insane amount of made shots, but the numbers are big enough to be classified as an issue for the Nets. The Hawks’ smooth, easy ball movement is how they get so many open shots, both twos and threes, and results in 20+ assists most nights.
The reason why the Nets aren’t able to do the same? Because Atlanta’s defenders have active hands and are always deflecting crosscourt passes, either out of bounds or for steals, intended for would-be-uncontested shooters. If the Nets can just do this a few more times per game, then maybe they can get some more fastbreak points (they have a total of 10 through first two games compared to the Hawks’ 28), limit open three-pointers especially by Kyle Korver and generally disrupt the flow of the Hawks’ offense. That could make a big difference in Game 3.
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