The Nets began a five-game road trip on Monday with a 131-118 loss to the Sacramento Kings. Prior to the defeat, the Nets had won three games in a row and six of their previous seven. During that two-week stretch, the Nets raised their record from 6-8 to 12-9 before falling to the Kings.
They now are trying to stay at or above .500 out west. The Nets faced the 13-10 Phoenix Suns last night (Wednesday) and have the Denver Nuggets (tonight), Golden State Warriors (Saturday) and Utah Jazz (Monday) before returning to Brooklyn to host the Knicks at the Barclays Center next Wednesday.
Nets forward Mikal Bridges spoke about the team’s goals ahead of the trip after their 124-97 win at home last Friday over the Washington Wizards.
“Go out there, play, and win games,” he said. “It’S going to be tough, but I know we’re ready for it. I’m excited. I like playing on the road. I think we all do. So go out there, get some wins. For me, just don’t come back less than .500. That’s how I feel. But obviously, I want to win every single game. But that’s just a mindset.”
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Helping the Nets’ record rise— they were 12-10 and No. 8 in the Eastern Conference going into last night’s game—Bridges was averaging 29.3 points per game over the past four games before taking on the Suns, his former team before being traded to the Nets last February in the Kevin Durant deal.
“I feel like I’ve always been an efficient person my whole life and even coming over here last year, I think I was getting a little inefficient,” he said. “I was scoring, I was scoring a lot, but having more on my shoulders. But I think my efficiency was dropping a little bit and obviously I was happy my scoring was going up, but I still didn’t like how much I was missing at times. I want to get to and just continue to work throughout the season and getting that feel. I think it’s just more reps, more reps. And then games help.”
Brooklyn’s starting guard Cam Thomas hasn’t been efficient as of late, shooting just 34.2% in the Nets’ first four games of December, including 8-21 versus the Kings.
“I think it’s going to be varied obviously,” said Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn. “The way Atlanta started against him (a close 114-113 win on December 6), I think overall the judgment of the looks, he’ll continue to learn from…So it’s gonna take some more of us being together and understanding when those shots are going to be okay to take.”
Vaughn thinks his team is still trying to find the right balance.
“At the end of the night,” Vaughn continued,” I really trust that these guys will make the right decision with the basketball, but sometimes it’s just appetizing and appealing when that one-on-one matchup is there. Now we just got to continue to grow and make the right decision every time.”