Since it’s become apparent once again that the Nets can’t rely on Ben Simmons, who missed his sixth straight game in Sunday’s lopsided loss to the 76ers, they’re still left searching for what type of team they are.
Following perhaps their worst defeat of the season, head coach Jacque Vaughn lamented his team’s lack of physicality, but also noted his players aren’t about to get bigger, so they have to figure out different ways to be assertive.
That’s even more difficult to do when key players are out, as the Nets are missing not just Simmons, whose left lower-back impingement is due to be reevaluated this week, but also leading scorer Cam Thomas, as well as Dennis Smith Jr., another top defender.
The absence of a star player like Simmons, in addition to an inability to keep the same lineup on the court for any stretch of games, has left the Nets in bad shape against the better teams in the league, which is why they fell to just 2-7 against teams that are over .500, while they are 4-0 versus everyone else.
“We’re winning most of the games we’re supposed to win and against top teams, we’re getting punished,” Nic Claxton said.
Asked if that was partially because the current group needs to build chemistry, the center said that wasn’t the case.
“I don’t think it’s a big chemistry thing,” Claxton said. “We have to figure out a way to score more points and get more stops. It starts with us stringing together some stops. We’re not there yet.”
Their next test comes Wednesday in Atlanta, followed by five straight winnable home games before a West Coast trip.
On Sunday, they were overmatched by Philadelphia, run off the court in the second half.
Mikal Bridges believes the results will improve once the players are more used to one another.
“These better teams have been together for a while,” Bridges said. “We’re just not there yet. There’s nothing wrong with that. We’ve just got to figure it out.”
Without Simmons, it seems difficult to see a way the Nets can do much more than compete for a play-in spot in the Eastern Conference, which is what they’ve been doing since the departures of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Bridges, though, declined to use the absence of Simmons, Thomas and Smith as an excuse.
“We’d like to have our team, but … I think we’ve got good enough players where we can go out there and win,” Bridges said. “We’ve just got to be on the same page.”
Perhaps the potential emergence of Lonnie Walker IV will help.
The sixth-year guard is averaging a career-high 16.7 points per game and is shooting the best percentage of his career in field goals (51.0) and 3-pointers (45.6). He provided one of the few highlights for Brooklyn on Sunday, when he took on nearly the entire Philadelphia defense, drove through the lane and slammed over a trio of defenders, sending the Barclays Center crowd to its feet.
But after his 26-point performance, Walker noted it didn’t mean anything, coming in a blowout loss.
For the Nets to avoid more days like Sunday, they’ll have to decide just who they want to be, with or without Simmons.
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