Nets look to avoid 0-3 hole in Brooklyn

Barclays ready to rock for Game 3 with Philadelphia

April 20, 2023 John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Spencer Dinwiddie and the Nets hope to pick up the pace and push past the Sixers at Downtown's Barclays Center Thursday. AP Photo by Derik Hamilton

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The Nets are ready to rock the Barclays Center Thursday night.

At break-neck speeds.

“We’re getting late into the shot clock because we’re not getting the ball out quick and pushing it up quick with multiple ball-handlers,” Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn said after Wednesday’s practice as his team prepared to pick up the pace in Game 3.

The emphasis on quickness came up because Brooklyn point man Spencer Dinwiddie has been struggling to run the offense through the 76ers’ defense, which head coach Doc Rivers ingeniously turned into an impenetrable zone in the second half of Game 2.

“We got open looks, they tried to go zone, we had enough shooting out there. The ball just didn’t go in,” Vaughn lamented after Brooklyn shot 37.5 percent from the floor and misfired on 29 of its 42 3-point attempts.

Though two losses in this best-of-seven first-round series, Dinwiddie is averaging 13.0 points, 6.5 assists and 2.5 turnovers per contest. He is shooting 38.5 percent from the field, including 25 percent from 3-point range.

The Sixers aren’t worried about anything but continuing to plod through the Nets, having won six consecutive postseason contests against Brooklyn dating to 2019 and all four regular-season meetings this year.

Joel Embiid and the Sixers had their way with the Nets in Philadelphia, a trend that must end if Brooklyn hopes to climb back into the series. AP Photo by Derik Hamilton

“A lot of people think I just love scoring the basketball,” Philladelphia center and NBA Most Valuable Player front-runner Joel Embiid said following Monday night’s 96-84 victory over the Nets at the Wells Fargo Center.

“I don’t think it’s true. I enjoy winning.”

So do the Nets, but they haven’t done so against the Sixers since March 10, 2022.

Embiid, who averaged an NBA-best 33.1 points per game during the season, was held to 20 points in Game 2.

But he also grabbed 19 rebounds as Philadelphia controlled the glass, handed out seven assists and went 6-of-11 from the field and 8-of-8 at the line.

“We held Embiid under his average,” Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. “They were just the best team tonight. They found a way to pull it out.”

The Sixers hold a 39-3 edge in second-chance points thus far in the series. They’ve also outrebounded the Nets, 94-68, including a 13-5 advantage in offensive rebounds Monday.

Brooklyn believes it must quicken its approach to slow down Embiid and the Sixers, who got 33 points from Tyrese Maxey in Game 2.

Dinwiddie expressed the need for speed following Wednesday’s practice.

“Yeah, of course. You wanna attack early in transition. The best quality shots typically are early in the shot clock, just by the numbers and the points per possession,” he noted.

“They tell us all the time. Kick it ahead a lot obviously…get into our plays a little bit quicker. That’s one of the things that in this series so far we haven’t done a great at and that we kinda drilled in the practice today.”

Vaughn defended his top ballhandler and playmaker.

“That’s why, kind of, you can’t just narrow in on Spencer,” he said.
Certainly not.

Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson have been the Nets’ top-two scorers throughout the run toward the playoffs and the first two games of this series.

But neither has put together four solid quarters in the series, and neither have the Nets, according to Vaughn.

“We did it for two quarters, we have to do it for four,” said Vaughn on Monday. “We need everybody to show up and be ready to play (in Game 3).”

They’ll be there, and so will a sellout crowd on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush.

No NBA team has ever crawled out of an 0-3 hole in a playoff series. And the Nets don’t want to find themselves in that position come Thursday night.

Instead, they are looking for a quick turnaround in Downtown Brooklyn. One that could give them their first playoff victory since Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals vs. Milwaukee in Downtown Brooklyn.

The Nets dropped the final two games of that series, lost four in a row to Boston in the opening round last year and are still looking for their first win against the Sixers.

That’s an eight-game playoff losing streak that Brooklyn fans are eager to see end Thursday night.

Game 4 is Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Nets would like to get more production from Nic Claxton in Game 3 Thursday night on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush. AP Photo by Derik Hamilton

NOTHING BUT NET: Former Net James Harden, the NBA leader in assists this season, is averaging 10.0 helpers per contest in this series. But “The Beard” is just 11-of-34 from the field, including a dismal 3-of-13 in Game 2. … Brooklyn center Nic Claxton went scoreless Monday and has just five points in the series thus far despite logging 51 minutes. … Game 5, if necessary, will be back in Philadelphia on Monday.