As Brooklyn Nets Slump, Competitors In Eastern Conference Start Ascending

It was an interesting night of results from four of the top five teams in the Eastern Conference Friday night when the Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers were all in action.

The Nets appear to be among the favorites to win an NBA title, but the outcomes of Friday’s events hardly made them look the part.

A good 15-minute stretch Wednesday is the only thing separating the Nets from a five-game losing streak after they went through their first 32 games without a losing streak. The last five times they stepped on their homecourt it did not go well.

It started with a four-point loss to the Orlando Magic in a game with mostly unrecognizable lineups due to each team dealing with players being sidelined with Covid-19. Then it continued with fourth-quarter fades to Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Clippers but it was the last two nights at home that provided some kind of poor indication about the Nets at the moment.

On Monday they trailed by as many as 28 in a 14-point loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Following Kyrie Irving’s successful season debut with an impressive fourth quarter in Indiana, the Nets trailed by as many as 24 in their 12-point loss to Milwaukee.

It also occurred on a night when the Nets seemed to come to grips of what they’re dealing with Irving only able to play in road games.

“We got to live with what we’re dealt with, and that’s home games we’ve got to figure ways and even road games,” James Harden said. “Just because Ky’s on the road with us doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy for us as well. So we’ve got to mesh and we’ve got to find ways to win games each individual time we play.”

In way this looked like Game 7 for the Nets with Kevin Durant carrying them and not getting much help. Except there was no long two-pointer, no overtime as the Bucks looked the part of defending champion with a relatively easy win continuing a trend of low-quality outings by the Nets on their homecourt of late.

“We’ve got to turn the tide,” Durant said. “I feel like we will. Our home crowd wants to get behind the team that’s playing well. I don’t expect us to have a great homecourt advantage if we’re playing (expletive) basketball. That’s just what it is. It’s on us to just play better.”

While this was unfolding, Philadelphia was winning its sixth in a row by dispatching of the San Antonio Spurs. The 19-point win put Philadelphia six games over .500 after enduring a stretch of 14 losses in 22 games and are getting consistently dominant performances from Joel Embiid, is averaging 33.2 points during the streak and probably could easily score more according to teammates.

“At this point, it’s kind of routine,” forward Tobias Harris said of Embiid’s play. “You can kind of see the fear in defenders’ eyes. He’s a guard in a center’s body. If he wanted 40, he could’ve gotten 40. He knows how to pick apart a game.”

The Nets were part of Embiid’s dominant run. In their second game of the home losing streak, Embiid scored 16 of his 34 points in a 39-point fourth quarter and then waved the Nets off the court after briefly jawing at Durant.

“t’s been fun,” Embiid said. “We’re just playing as a team. These guys trust me to make plays. I need to keep on doing it and climb up the standings.”

Meanwhile shortly after the Bucks savored wrapping up their win in Brooklyn, the Bulls continued to make their move past the Nets to the top seed in the East. Chicago is on a nine-game winning streak, its longest since 2010-11 and it is possible the Bulls could be going for their 12th straight win on Wednesday when they play the Nets.

The Nets will enter that game 0-8 against teams currently in the top four of their respective conferences and only two of those losses are by single digits though the six-point loss against Phoenix on Nov. 27 was nowhere as close as the final score indicated.

The Bulls are showing what the Nets aspire to be, a team able to seemingly produce points at will. When they beat the Washington Wizards Friday night, it marked the fourth time they topped 130 points and fifth time they topped 120 though for all the buzz about an offense that owns two DeMar DeRozan buzzer-beaters in the winning streak, there was plenty of talk about being better defensively.

“We’ve got to be better defensively,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “I thought we did some really good things offensively tonight with our unselfishness and the way we moved and shared the basketball. I think if you spoke to those guys, they would say that we’ve got to keep getting better defensively. We have the capability.”

For all the talk about improved defense in Chicago, there was buzz about the depth. Each player who scored in double figures played at least 31 minutes and this was on a night when DeRozan was 5 of 16 and that is a situation rarely occurring for the Nets these days.

It seems likely the Nets will shake their sudden January malaise but the group of challengers in the East could make this a sprint to the finish in the regular season followed by a wild two months in the postseason.