Nets say ‘no tanks’ to Mavs and Grizzlies

Win 2 straight at hands of teams looking toward NBA Draft

March 20, 2018 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Head coach Kenny Atkinson is pushing the Nets two win as many games as they can down the stretch, while some of Brooklyn’s opponents aren’t exactly in line with that thinking. AP photo by Kathy Willens

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The Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies came into Barclays Center this week looking like teams hoping to better their respective positions in June’s NBA Draft.

The Brooklyn Nets don’t have that problem.

Or should we call it a luxury?

Buoyed by a pair of lockdown fourth-quarter defensive performances, the previously struggling Nets took full advantage of a pair of teams on the “tank,” rallying for their first two-game winning streak in two months.

“I think in the fourth quarter we put a lot more resistance on and we became a lot more physical,” Brooklyn head coach Kenny Atkinson said after the Nets pulled out a 118-115 victory over the Grizzlies in front of 12,856 fans at the Downtown arena on Monday night.

“Giving up 21 points in the fourth quarter, I thought that was key. Seventeen last game [versus Dallas in the fourth quarter], 21 this game. The defense was good again in the fourth quarter.”

The defense was good, but the Grizzlies (19-51) and Mavericks (22-48) simply weren’t as the Nets (23-48) improved to three wins better than last season, when they finished with an NBA-low 20 victories.

More importantly, Brooklyn is looking to get even better during these final 11 contests as it doesn’t have the added incentive to drop games in the hopes of upping its draft position.

That’s because the Nets’ first-round pick in June belongs to three-time defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland via Brooklyn’s 2013 “blockbuster” deal to bring Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce here in the hopes of winning an NBA title.

We all know how that went for Brooklyn: one playoff series win and a half-decade’s worth of first-round picks down the drain.

While general manager Sean Marks has done his best to fill in the gaps, the Nets likely won’t climb back into the NBA postseason picture — one they were a part of during their first three campaigns in Brooklyn — until they draft high or lure a premier free agent here.

So all Atkinson and his charges have been focused on during this injury plagued campaign is getting better one win at a time.

The Mavs, who have dropped 10 of their last 14 games, and Grizzlies, losers of 20 of their last 21, provided the perfect opposition, or lack thereof, for the Nets to regain some confidence after losing all but three of their previous 22 games.

“We just got to keep playing and keep grinding it out,” said veteran forward DeMarre Carroll after scoring 18 points against Memphis. “I think tonight we went with two and we don’t want to settle for two [wins].”

The Nets benefitted from the Grizzlies sitting center Marc Gasol due to an illness and the continued absence of point guard Mike Conley, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the season due to a heel injury.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban has already received a $600,000 fine from the league for his well-chronicled “tanking” comments earlier this year.

But none of that matters to the Nets, who are eager to prove they can play their best basketball of the season over these final few weeks.

Allen Crabbe returned from an illness of his own to pour in 22 points and Caris LeVert amassed the same total off the bench Monday night as Brooklyn put together back-to-back wins for the first time since Jan. 17-19.

“Glad we got him back,” D’Angelo Russell said of Crabbe. “He came out like he never left, so glad we got him back.”

Russell finished with 14 points, seven assists, five rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots as he continues to build up his all-around game in the hopes of being the elite franchise player Brooklyn was hoping to obtain when it traded Brook Lopez to the Lakers for him last June.

“It’s a good feeling,” Russell said of Brooklyn’s modest win streak. “Like I said, no matter when it comes in the season, the two wins to build off of is a great feeling.”

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who has thrived since being re-installed in the starting lineup, added 16 points and 12 boards for Brooklyn, which improved to 3-3 in its last six games and completed season series sweeps of both the Mavs and Grizzlies over the past several days.

The Nets will try to make it three wins in a row for the first time this season Wednesday night when they host the Charlotte Hornets, who are not considered one of the teams on the tank, but rather just stuck in the land of NBA mediocrity.

“Let’s try to go for three and hopefully the team can keep it up,” Carroll said.

Nothing But Net: Crabbe can make Nets history at Barclays Center on Wednesday night. The sharp-shooter hit four 3-pointers on Monday vs. Memphis, meaning he is just four more long-range shots away from setting the team’s single-season record of 169, set by Deron Williams back in 2012-13 … The Nets haven’t won three games in a row since April 1-4 of last season, when they beat Orlando, Atlanta and Philadelphia.