Pressure is mounting for the Brooklyn Nets.
They're eighth-place in a much-improved Eastern Conference. These playoffs are shaping up to be a bloodbath where some excellent teams won't even make the second round. Earning a sixth seed so they can avoid a possible single-game elimination play-in fate would be huge for Kevin Durant and company. But do they have enough time to get healthy and climb back up that standings ladder? Maybe, maybe not.
They're still down four key starters on a nightly basis and the situation is growing dire with each loss. They're underdogs against the Milwaukee Bucks this weekend.
Durant may finally have a return date in mind. There is less clarity on the situation with newly acquired Ben Simmons. Kyrie Irving has been optimistic he'll be able to play home games eventually, despite not being vaccinated. But Joe Harris might not be able to return at all this season.
And health is the biggest swing factor of all. We tried to guess how the fully healthy lineup might look on the most recent Nothing But Nets podcast.
"[Health] That's it, that's number 1,2, and 3 and 4 really…. you flip it like take the Celtics and take 4 of their starters out [like we had], you know, it's a different look."
-Steve Nash wants the #nets to play better but understands health is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th key. pic.twitter.com/i9dFlq47XM
— DaveEarly (@DavidEarly) February 25, 2022
FiveThirtyEight predicts the Nets to finish the season 43-39, just four games over .500. That suggests they'll finish as the eighth seed and play a team they face twice next week in the Toronto Raptors. Irving can't play the Raptors, because he's not eligible to play in Brooklyn or Toronto given vaccine mandates.
That would be a brutal (but no longer shocking) way for this team's season to end.
Irving is only eligible to appear in another eight games the rest of the regular season. There are just 22 games remaining now. With fans nervously eyeing the calendar and the standings, Nash gave us a glimpse into the mindset the team uses to look ahead while keeping focus on the present.
“The smart thing to do would be to take it game-by-game,” Nash said on Thursday, after his team's 129-106 loss to the surging Boston Celtics. “But we understand that's the situation we're in. We know there's urgency. We know that we're not gonna have half a season to kinda figure this thing out. We're gonna be up against the clock. And our guys, like I said, they've been great cause there's a lot of pressure, and circumstances that make it difficult as you're dropping in the standings but their spirit has been outstanding. That's the spirit I think of taking it day-by-day, game-by-game trying to improve and at the same time we recognize the situation we're in.”
Some good news is that Goran Dragic will make his Nets debut in Milwaukee on Saturday. If there is no change to Irving's status over the next few weeks, The Dragon figures to play an important role going forward.
It's refreshingly honest that Nash admits his team feels some sense of urgency. It wouldn't have been surprising if he simply opted to use the trusty ol' one-day-at-a-time cliché. But the number of games Nash has endured with a very short-handed group all season has bordered on the absurd. They once had 10 players in health and safety protocols.
The Nets—and oddsmakers for that matter—still believe they're a title contender, and that they just need to get healthy and build some continuity. That's how much talent they possess on the roster. But if they don't even make the second round of the playoffs, we'll all look back on the last 18 months and wonder “what if” about the former and current iteration of these Nets.
Durant and Irving rise to the occasion in pressure moments. So if there's a sense of urgency, that may not be a bad thing. But they'll have to be on the court for it to matter.
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