The Bulls' victory over Brooklyn Monday snapped a five-game winning streak for the Nets. Sitting now at 7-4 overall, in a three-way tie for 5th place in the East (along with the Cavaliers and Knicks) it's still early but we're learning some things about this team.

Nets Takeaways From Loss To Bulls

1) The Nets aren't nearly as conservative as they were last season with regards to load management

Last season limiting the minutes of key players was a big emphasis for Brooklyn. This season, at least so far, the team has opted for a more aggressive approach. Before the loss to the Bulls, Steve Nash talked about his team's availability for the second of a back-t0-back and if anyone would be limited.

“No limitations obviously,” said the second year signal caller. “We hope that we don’t have to over due it with anyone but that’s the kiss of death whenever you start thinking you’re gonna limit guys here and there so we’ll see how the game goes.”

Nash is implying that if you assume you'll have enough of a lead where you can limit a star's minutes, the basketball gods will make it a close game, a Karmic “kiss of death” for your minutes plan.

Nash continued “I expect guys to have to play and play hard and play a lot of minutes and if we have a choice to protect guys we will try but we may not have that luxury tonite.”

Kevin Durant has been available in back-to-backs so far. KD's minutes are up to 34.9 minutes per game. Last season they were at 33.1 but he only appeared in half of the contests, due to a combination of a hamstring issue and a generally cautious approach by the team in their star's first season back from major Achilles surgery.

Earlier in the season Nash offered hints about his approach to this subject.

“Yeah I think we’re more comfortable playing [Durant] in [back-to-backs],” Steve Nash said. “You know he’s had more than enough time since the [Achilles injury suffered in 2019], since the return, he’s proven that he can handle that. Now do I want to pick some spots to be able to protect him this year? Of course. But its not as formulaic as perhaps last year was.”

Thus far the less formulaic approach has led to an unfettered Durant and James Harden. We'll see if either star get a rest night anytime soon. But so far it's pretty much been “all systems go” in that department.

I'd be surprised if they didn't opt to sneak in a rest game soon for Harden, who still doesn't look quite right after returning from a grade two hamstring issue sustained last winter.

2) Competing from a disadvantage on defense

The Nets have spoken several times about their defense surprisingly being ahead of their offense. Before the game Nash talked about being proud of the way his unit has competed on D.

“I think we’ve done a great job of playing for one another,” said Nash. “They’ve been really engaged at trying to implement what we’ve asked and trying to play together, have a competitive spirit and connectivity, as we always preach with them, and then just to be as clear and on the same page, …I'm just proud of the way they’ve competed.”

You can read between the lines with comments like these. There is an implication that the absence of Kyrie Irving has left their rotation scrambling a bit and in urgent need of stops because of that sudden offensive void.

So long as James Harden (14 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists on a dismal 4 of 11 from the floor) continues to struggle, they'll need to continue to compete defensively, because they will be overmatched talent-wise on that end of the floor on a routine basis. Through three quarters their defense held up. But allowing 42 fourth quarter points dropped Brooklyn down from 6th to 9th overall in defensive rating.

3) When the supporting cast is held in check, Nets turn to Durant iso-ball

Durant finished with 38 points, still leading the league in scoring. Interestingly, it's the second time he's hit that number and both games were losses (the other coming at home to Charlotte) in which they were held to just 95 total points. It's a small sample from which to draw conclusions but it seems whenever the team doesn't get KD help, their entire offense can stagnate.

We saw this dynamic in the playoffs a year ago when Harden was hobbled by injury and they asked Slim Reaper to go supernova against Milwaukee. He did but it wasn't enough to advance.

After the Bulls game, LaMarcus Aldridge (19 points) talked about a key difference between the first half and the fourth quarter. Was fatigue or officiating a problem down the stretch?

“I wouldn't say it's fatigue or not getting the calls,” said Aldridge, who continued his hot start to the year with 19 points. “I don't think we kinda attacked the game the same way in the fourth as we did in the first half. [In the first half] we let [Harden] do his thing on the island a little bit, he was dropping it off and finding guys, we had him in pick-and-rolls a lot 'cause I don't think they really figured that out in the first half …. we ended up going to some stuff [in the fourth] that we really didn't get much out of.”

Nash spoke before the game about not relying too much on KD.

It's possible we'll see a concerted effort to keep the rest of the team engaged offensively when they visit Orlando on Wednesday.