The Nets sojourned to Paris in search of answers to their month-long slide, but they are still firmly in the dark after losing again in the City of Light.
Thursday’s loss to Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers marked the skidding Nets’ seventh in their last eight games and 12th in 15 since Dec. 13 to fall to 16-22 overall following a 13-10 start.
It left them barely clinging to the No. 10 play-in position in the Eastern Conference standings a few games from the midpoint of the 82-game regular season entering Friday’s league action.
The cultural significance of their in-season trip to France was undeniable, but the Nets returned home Friday to face a daunting segment of their schedule with five of their next seven against teams currently with a winning record, beginning Monday at Barclays Center against the Heat.
The Nets managed just 34 points in a brutal first half against the Cavs, and despite doubling that total with 68 in the final two quarters, they had no defensive answers for Mitchell, who finished with 45 points.
“That’s the exact message I had for the group. I do still believe this group can get some things accomplished, and we can play consistent basketball,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said after the game. “It does help to be healthy, but we can’t use that as an excuse.
“Our ability to create and figure out things together, like we did in the second half, we just gotta continue to have that mindset going into the game.”
Indeed, two of their five starters, Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith, played limited minutes after receiving IV treatments for illnesses, while backup center Day’Ron Sharpe was sidelined with a hyperextended knee.
Still, starting wing Cam Johnson was benched for the entire fourth quarter in favor of reserves Cam Thomas and Lonnie Walker IV after scoring a season-low three points on 1-for-7 shooting.
Thomas and Walker combined for 46 points off the bench and helped the Nets get as close as seven in the final quarter.
Thomas’ 26 points were his most in seven games since he was replaced in the starting lineup by Finney-Smith on Dec. 29 against the Wizards.
“His game is growing, great for him to do it on the international stage,” Vaughn said. “For a while we were starting him, but we were just pretty small and it was tough for us to rebound…That’s really a disadvantage for us is rebounding the basketball and giving [opponents] extra opportunities.
“What I do see for Cam is he’s a heck of a basketball player, and my message to him is ‘some nights you’re gonna finish, some nights you’re gonna start.’ It could be vice-versa. [Thursday] he didn’t start, but he finished the game for us. So I’m just gonna continue to coach him as a basketball player, whether it’s sixth, seventh, eighth or starter and appreciate what he does for us as a basketball player.”
Mikal Bridges matched Thomas with 26 points, but he only had one made field goal and six points as the Nets trailed by as many as 22 in the ugly first half.
“The second half is a positive for us, but I think what hurt was that Portland ‘L’ before coming here, trying to go on a two-game win streak [before leaving for Paris],” Bridges said. “We got better defensively in practice, having a little time to practice [Tuesday and Wednesday], but we obviously gotta be way better. Losing any game hurts.”
With less than four weeks left for GM Sean Marks to provide a roster shakeup before the Feb. 8 trade deadline, the losing and the hurt continues for the Nets.
“We gotta help each other as a team,” Bridges added. “We did OK, but we gotta help each other defensively. If one guy gets blown by, we gotta have somebody step up. We gotta be better than that. Games aren’t going to be perfect, but you gotta be able to help each other out and cover each other.
“We just gotta get better, get better at both ends.”