After a gutsy road win over the Phoenix Suns on December 13, the Brooklyn Nets were a respectable 13-10 a little over a quarter of the way through the 2023-2024 NBA season, with three-time NBA All-Star point guard Ben Simmons only playing in six of those games.
Since then, the team has won only three of their past 16 games and only one of their last nine heading into last night’s (Wednesday) road matchup with the Portland Trailblazers after a tough overtime 96-95 loss to the Miami Heat at Barclays Center on MLK Day. They headed into last night’s game with a record of 16-23.
And Simmons still has not returned to the court as he recovers from a nerve impingement in his back. His last game played was on November 6 against the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Nets dominated defensively early against Miami, allowing only 31 points in the first half, and led 47-31 with 10:50 in the third quarter. But scoring from the starting lineup continued to be subpar, with four of the five starters combining for just 23 points. Questionable decisions in the final minutes of regulation and overtime led to the disheartening loss. Mikal Bridges scored a team-high 26 points, while Cam Thomas and Royce O’Neal, with 23 and 15 respectively, were the only other Nets players in double figures.
Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn made the decision to move shooting guard Thomas, at the time the team’s leading scorer, to the bench in a sixth-man role on December 29, citing a lack of size in the starting lineup, inserting undersized power forward Dorian Finney-Smith into the lineup.
In a 111-102 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers last Thursday in Paris, France, four-time NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell outscored the Nets starters 45 to 44.
After Monday’s defeat, Thomas detailed some of the Nets’ issues.
“I’d probably say how we start,” he said. “Like in Cleveland, like in Paris, we started the game slow. So that’s where we were playing from behind. Even when we played them when I played when we came back from the big deficit, we started off slow, they got up big, and then this game, it was the third quarter.
“We started off slow in the third quarter. [Miami] got their rhythm, getting to the line, making threes, getting open threes. So probably say the way we start quarters, I’d probably say the first and third quarters.
Thomas also said his two consecutive 20-plus point efforts off the bench, 26 versus the Cavaliers and 23 against the Heat, is not an indication he feels more comfortable coming off of the bench.
As for Simmons, he spoke with the media in Paris and addressed his back injury. “It’s good, I’m getting there,” he said. “Progressing every day. I’ll be back soon.”
Brooklyn closes out a three-game west coast road trip against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, before returning to Barclays Center to host the New York Knicks on January 23. Vaughn said that Simmons will travel with the team.
