There have been plenty of benefits for the Nets since switching to their smallball lineup at the start of the new year – one that helped give life to a season that, until that point, looked like it was quickly slipping away from them. But by becoming a perimeter-oriented team with Paul Pierce, a natural small forward, sliding over to power forward and Kevin Garnett to center is the Nets have become a team with virtually no inside presence.
That shift in philosophy came back to haunt the Nets against the Celtics Friday night, as they went 0-for-17 from 3-point range in the first half and finished the game 4-for-30 from behind the arc on their way to a disappointing 91-84 loss in Boston to a reeling Celtics team that had entered the game with losses in seven of their last eight games.
"Yeah, that's our style," Paul Pierce said after losing in his second game back in Boston as an opposing player. "It's no secret. We're a small team … we don't rebound well, we force turnovers, we shoot threes.
"We forced turnovers, we didn't get easy opportunities, and the easy opportunities we got, we missed. So when those things happen, things don't seem to go our way. But I think the way we're playing, on most nights it's been going our way since the new year, so it's just one of those nights."
It goes without saying the Nets, who are back in Brooklyn Sunday night against the Kings, had an off night in Boston Friday, with nearly all of those 30 attempts from 3-point range being open ones that the Celtics gave them plenty of time to shoot, only to roll around the rim and spin out.
Because of the way the Nets are playing now, they don't really have a post presence on their roster, given that they're playing only one big at a time on the floor and both Kevin Garnett and Andray Blatche are often more comfortable playing on the perimeter shooting jumpers and Mason Plumlee's offensive game is mostly limited to (very effectively) finishing putbacks and dunks at the rim.
In fact, since the Nets switched permanently to the smaller lineup on Jan. 1, they are tied for third in the NBA in 3-pointers attempted per game (25.1) after being 21st in the league with 19.9 attempts per game during the first two months of the season, when Brook Lopez was the team's primary focal point before going down for the season with his latest injury to his right foot.
That means if the Nets have a night like they did in Boston Friday, when they're getting open looks and for whatever reason they're not falling, they don't have much of a Plan B to fall back on. Friday's game was the second in recent weeks – including when the Nets went 2-for-23 in a loss at Golden State on Feb. 22 – that the Nets could point to their poor 3-point shooting as the main reason for the defeat.
"Kind of," said Shaun Livingston, when asked if this was something this version of the Nets will simply have happen to it from time to time. "But we have to be able to figure it out. We're smart enough and I think we're savvy enough to figure out the game as we go.
"They didn't have any shot blockers, and all their bigs had fouls. We have to recognize that, and do a better job of recognizing that and attacking."
Given the way the Nets are playing now, it's hard to believe there won't be at least another game or two like this over their final 22 games of the season. But their goal is to try and avoid putting themselves in a situation where they will lose because of a poor shooting night from the outside, as they did Friday night in Boston.
"We've just got to make sure it doesn't happen anymore," Joe Johnson said. "We've just got to keep attacking. Keep playing hard and let our defense dictate our offense."
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