Before playing in the Nets’ 105-101 victory over the lowly Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night, Kevin Garnett had missed Brooklyn’s last 19 games, in which they went 14-5, and hadn’t played since late February. Now, it’s April, and the Nets just have a little over a week left in their regular season.
That means KG has only around 10 days or so to regain his feeling for Jason Kidd’s system in game that aren’t really important before the playoffs start, when all the games are incredibly important. He played well in his return to the lineup in Philly, scoring 10 points on six shots, but has to keep up a high level of play for at least a few games until he can be deemed as close to 100 percent.
He may be 37 years old, and have just a few NBA seasons left, but Garnett can still play. His intensity, ability to space the court with his jump shot and defensive presence down low are invaluable to Jason Kidd, who needs both him and the Nets’ other injury-plagued veteran, Andrei Kirilenko, to produce for him in the postseason.
Kirilenko missed 25 games early in the season with back spasms, the same injury that coincidentally sidelined Kevin Garnett for a month, and also was out for six games recently with a sprained ankle.
In his first year in Brooklyn, Kirilenko, 33, has proven to be a great defender who can guard taller power forward or even shorter shooting guards. In essence, he’s been a defensive glue guy for the Nets, while players such as Marcus Thornton and Alan Anderson have been offensive glue guys. AK returned to the lineup in Friday’s win over the Pistons.
Due to this, against the 76ers, Jason Kidd had his full complement of key players available to play, sans Brook Lopez, for the first in awhile, and even though the game ended up being much closer than it probably should have been, the team’s increased versatility showed on the court. 11 different Nets (both Jason Collins and Jorge Gutierrez got DNP-CDs) played at least nine minutes on Saturday, exhibiting the balance Brooklyn has at its disposal when its players are healthy.
The Nets have six games left in the season, which means they have six more chances for their full corps of talent to play with each other until the postseason starts in less than two weeks.
Considering the addition of Gutierrez and Collins to the fold, Brooklyn hasn’t had their current 13-man roster (excluding Marquis Teague) healthy at the same time the entire season. Yes, once the playoffs come around, Kidd’s rotation will include closer to nine or 10 players, not 12 or 13, but the same idea still holds true: The Nets are finally at full strength, and when they are, they are a deep and extremely talented team.
Brooklyn needs time to mesh its newer players with its older ones before playing (most likely) either the Bulls or Raptors in the first round, and–hopefully–a team such as the Heat or Pacers in the second round. Right now, the Nets probably aren’t a cohesive enough unit to challenge the elite Miami or Indiana and could realistically fall to Chicago or Toronto. However, once they are able to develop some rhythm and chemistry, especially between the starting five and top reserves (Blatche, Thornton, Livingston, etc), getting far in the playoffs doesn’t seem like an unrealistic expectation.
Also, the Nets play the Heat for the fourth and final time in the regular season tomorrow night in Miami with the chance to sweep their season series with the two-time defending champions by a 4-0 margin. Obviously, the postseason is a totally different animal, but still, taking all four meetings from a team like the Heat would be a huge accomplishment for a Nets team hamstrung by injuries the entire 2013-14 season. And just imagine what they could do if Brook Lopez had never broken his foot.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
