Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash is a glass-half-full type of guy. This is exactly why the 47-year-old shot-caller opted to focus on the silver lining of his team's embarrassing 125-102 loss to the Utah Jazz on Friday night.
Instead of lambasting his team for the poor effort they put forth against a determined Jazz side, Nash heaped praise on his players and the attitude they exhibited throughout the blowout:
“A tough game,” Nash said, via Nick Friedell of ESPN. “I felt for the guys. I was really proud of them for keeping their spirit the whole game. We're going through a tough stretch, we're undermanned and we're asking guys to do more — and played against an excellent offensive team, an excellent team overall, in general. So you could get into all sorts of details of what went wrong, but the reality is they're a very good team, played very good basketball, made shots and our guys stayed together and fought through it. So I'm proud of them for that.”
To be fair, the Nets roster was decimated against the Jazz. Kevin Durant and James Harden were both out due to injury, which left Kyrie Irving as the lone superstar available for Brooklyn. LaMarcus Aldridge was also sidelined and so was Paul Millsap.
Be that as it may, this does not take away from the fact that the Nets were humiliated by the Jazz. Steve Nash can talk up his team's fighting spirit as much as he can, but there's still no denying that the Nets are stuck in a deep hole right now.