The 2015-16 NBA season has just begun, so it’s a little unfair to be strongly critical of a team that has not yet won a game, a team trying to find its way and navigate the torrential waters of the NBA.
The Brooklyn Nets are one of those few teams, trying to post their first win of the season. Each of their four losses so far have been to playoff contenders from last season, but so was Brooklyn, though they barely qualified for the eighth final seed.
So far, they’ve gotten off to slow starts in each of the games they’ve played this season, except for Monday night’s home game versus the Milwaukee Bucks—a battle of two 0-3 teams.
The first quarter ended in a 30-30 tie. Although Brooklyn lost, unlike their first three games, they didn’t have to dig themselves out of a hole in the second quarter to be in the game. It’s motivating, if nothing else. Something to build on.
“We scratched and clawed. It was a game we could’ve won,” stated head coach Lionel Hollings, who further emphasized the need for a Nets win right now to build his team’s confidence.
Center Brook Lopez, averaging approximately 18 points and 7 rebounds per game, has been a positive, a constant, an opposing threat in the middle. His play verses center Pau Gasol and the Chicago Bulls opening night at the Barclays Center at one point was reminiscent of old-school 7-footers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar versus Rick Smits. Tall, lanky scorers battling.
Brooklyn, which played the Atlanta Hawks there last night (Thursday), returns home to host Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers tomorrow at Barclays, then immediately hits the road again, beginning a four-game road trip to Milwaukee Saturday, then Houston, Sacramento and Golden State.