During a stomach- and potentially season-turning 12-game slide, the Nets have beaten only the Pistons and been outscored by 133 points; have shot a league-worst 43.1 percent from the field; have surrendered 121.6 points per game and allowed at least 110 points in each one; and, for good measure, have slumped at the free-throw line (70.7 percent), too.
In virtually every area, they have been outplayed and frequently badly.
The most glaring discrepancy, though, has come beyond the arc.
Since Dec. 14 and through this 2-10 stretch, the Nets have been dead last at both 3-point shooting (32.5 percent) and defending 3-pointers (opponents shooting 43.4 percent).
The Nets have given up an average of 15.6 3s per game in the stretch, the worst in basketball.
Brooklyn is averaging 11.4 made triples per game in the span, essentially sacrificing 12 points per game from deep.
Even if the Nets out-rebounded and out-hustled their opponents, the shooting disparity would be too much to overcome.
More than most teams, the Nets need to knock down the most valuable shots in basketball.
They only have a few players capable of consistently breaking down defenders off the dribble and do not have much of a traditional, low-post threat who could compensate for poor outside shooting.
GM Sean Marks built the team on 3-and-D types — Cam Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Royce O’Neale and, to an extent, Mikal Bridges — and the Nets, quite abruptly, have become the worst team at hitting and defending the deep shot.
Offensively, the problem is a new one.
For their first 23 games, the Nets were the third-best 3-point shooting team in the NBA at 38.9 percent.
Amid this tumble, they entered Thursday’s off day as 17th best this season.
After Wednesday’s latest and fifth-straight embarrassing loss, this one in Houston, Cam Thomas pointed to his team still finding open shots from the corner, which is a goal.
“That’s what we want, drive-and-kick 3s, so we’re getting the shots we want,” said Thomas, who went 0-for-2 from deep on a night the Nets shot 7-for-32. “I don’t really feel like none of this is really like, we’re taking awful shots. We’re getting good shots, the shots that we took all year. We’re just not making them.
“I don’t really know, it’s crazy.”
In general, they still have been knocking down corner 3s.
3-pointers since Dec. 14. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
But on above-the-break deep shots — any trey attempted outside of a corner — the Nets have shot an NBA-worst 28.4 percent in the span.
The slump has infected everyone outside of Johnson.
Over the past dirty dozen games, Thomas is shooting 33.9 from deep (after hitting 35.6 percent in the first 23 games), Finney-Smith 31.5 percent (had been 44.5), Bridges 29.4 percent (had been 38.4), O’Neale 28.8 percent (had been 40.3) and Spencer Dinwiddie 27 percent (had been 33.5).
Brooklyn has missed Lonnie Walker IV and his scoring touch off the bench.
Thomas — deeply struggling while receiving sporadic minutes and perhaps trying to adjust his game to find shots for others and not just for himself — has not been himself.
Finney-Smith went 1-for-11 from 3-point range Wednesday, which the Nets hope will mark rock bottom.
“I’m glad I didn’t bet anything in my life that [Finney-Smith] would be 1-for-11 and Cam Thomas wouldn’t make a shot in two games,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said. “We’ll get out of this thing, our guys are too diligent. They’ll get back in the gym and get a chance to make some shots in the gym. See the ball go in.
“And we’ll turn this thing around.”
The Nets will try to solve their 3-point issues beginning Friday at Barclays Center against the Thunder, who just happen to lead the NBA in shooting 39.7 percent from downtown.
Brooklyn has been the fourth-worst team this season in limiting opponents from deep (38.5 percent) and especially porous during this downturn.
Defending the 3 has haunted the 2023-24 Nets, who have tinkered with the defense to improve rebounding by often not switching on screens but been burnt by offenses capitalizing on creating more space away from the hoop.
The Rockets crushed the Nets from deep (19 of 39), which Vaughn attributed partly to the help they had to send to help defend big man Alperen Sengun.
But even with additional defenders, Sengun poured in 30 points.
The Nets are getting exploited everywhere, but especially outside the arc.
“Think just miscommunication,” O’Neale said about the 3s being drained against the Nets. “We might be a little step late on the rotation or whatever. I think we got to be more alert.”
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Mark W. Sanchez
