NEW YORK — The Nets don’t have time to mess around, but that’s the position they find themselves in. With 18 games left in the season, the early-season championship favorites still have no clue what works for this roster that’s been constructed on the fly.
“I think we’re getting there,” said interim head coach Jacque Vaughn, who is expected to return to the bench if Steve Nash clears the health and safety protocols in time for Sunday afternoon’s matchup in Boston against the Celtics. “It’s looked different at different times of the year.”
The Nets have to take advantage of the few remaining games on their schedule. Kyrie Irving, who is ineligible to play in New York City because he is unvaccinated, will only be available for seven of the final 18 regular-season games. Kevin Durant has returned from the MCL sprain that kept him out since Jan. 15, but on the same day he returned, the Nets announced sharpshooter Joe Harris will undergo season-ending ankle surgery (on the same ankle he hurt on Nov. 14). Not to mention Ben Simmons’ Nets debut is weeks away, and he doesn’t project to play until closer to April.
“I would say time’s definitely not on our side,” veteran guard Patty Mills said after Nets practice on Saturday. “But we’re here and this is what we have, this is what we’re dealing with. So it’s about making the most of the time that we do have.”
It’s an uphill climb to say the least, especially when you consider the standings.
The Nets woke up Saturday morning as the East’s eighth seed less than two months after being the conference’s top dog. That’s what an injury to Durant, a part-time Irving, an unmotivated James Harden and an incomplete roster can do to a team’s standing in the win-loss column.
Compounding matters is Brooklyn’s upcoming schedule: The Nets have the sixth-easiest remaining schedule in basketball, according to Tankathon.com, but their upcoming slate still includes 11 games against teams jockeying for playoff position.
Durant, however, is back, and he dropped 31 points in his first game back, albeit in a loss to a short-handed Miami Heat team on Thursday. As long as he’s healthy, he and Irving will have an opportunity to captain the ship and steer this team back in its initial direction and, provided good health, they will play together for seven more regular-season games.
“Now you take a stretch where we’ll have Kai and Kevin playing together, where Kevin covers up a lot of our sins on both ends of the floor,” Vaughn said. “And so sometimes they get shifted and moved around a little, but we are trying to figure it out.”
Yet still, talent is one thing, logistics are another. There are only 18 games left in the season, the majority of which will be played without Irving. That means the Nets have to get the most out of their minimal practices and game-day shootaroounds. Those are usually light days given the toll an intense game takes on a player’s body.
The Nets are coming off a disappointing loss: In Durant’s first game back since the mid-January injury, they blew a 16-point lead to a Heat team without Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, P.J. Tucker or Victor Oladipo.
That loss is like many others this championship-seeking team has absorbed this season. The goal remains the same, and the Nets still believe it’s an attainable achievement once all their players are on the floor.
“I think the mood is still hungry to just try and figure it out,” said Mills. “I’d say knowing that we got Kevin back, and knowing that Benny will be back at some point and then being able to find a way to make it happen: I think that is the mindset.
“Is it going to be tough? Yeah, of course it is, but nothing worth doing is ever easy, and you know we’re trying to accomplish something here that’s gonna be hard to pull off but the belief is still there, 100 percent.”
