At the midway point of the NBA season, no team has pulled off a more dramatic turnaround than the Brooklyn Nets. Just two weeks into the season, the Nets were left for dead. Fresh off a trade request from their franchise cornerstone in Kevin Durant, a 2-6 start had already seen head coach Steve Nash fired and All-Star guard Kyrie Irving suspended indefinitely.
After seven years on Brooklyn's bench, the Nets named Vaughn head coach after reports indicated they planned to hire suspended Celtics coach Ime Udoka. Since then, the team has posted the league's best record (23-7), including the best 20-game stretch (18-2) in franchise history. Vaughn pointed to three areas when asked what stands out about his group amid the incredible comeback.
“I think they’ve wrapped their heads around a few things: the professionalism that we ask of them, their approach to every single day, and the ability to have no built-in excuses,” the head coach said. “You show up, you do your job, you do it to the best of your ability, you reload, and you do it again the next day.
“That’s part of consistency. So those three things are a consistent part of our group: our approach, our mental toughness to win a game in the fourth quarter, our mental toughness to bounce back after a loss.”
The Nets hold the league's third-best net rating under Vaughn. The head coach and Brooklyn are now faced with another arduous task: continuing their winning ways with Kevin Durant sidelined. The team's response to Durant's injury last Sunday in Miami illustrates Vaughn's message regarding mental toughness.
After Durant went down, the Nets fell behind by nine points in the fourth quarter. In a position where they would have likely rolled over last season (the team lost 11 straight with Durant out), Brooklyn rallied behind contributions across the board to claw out a last-second victory:
Durant is expected to miss 2-4 weeks with an MCL sprain. The Nets dropped their first game of that stretch 109-98 to the league-leading Celtics Thursday. Brooklyn put forth a respectable effort in the loss, leading for the majority of the first half and pulling ahead at several points in the second. Similar to Vaughn's message, Irving said the loss serves as motivation as the team moves forward.
“When losses like this happen, we just get even hungrier, get in the gym, continue to prepare and continue to do the things that have gotten us to this point and live with the results,” the guard said. “We’re just putting our work in front of us and not really paying attention to anything but ourselves and how we can collectively get better.”
The Nets stand alone in second place in the Eastern Conference following the recent hot streak. Brooklyn will look to get back in the win column when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday before departing for a five-game road trip.
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