The Brooklyn Nets were humbled on their home floor by the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. The Nets fell to 10-5 and third place in the East behind the first-place Washington Wizards and second-place Chicago Bulls. They currently have the sixth-best chances of winning the NBA title based on FiveThirtyEight's prediction model. It would appear Stephen Curry and the 12-2 Golden State Warriors have cemented their place as the league's team to beat so far through the first stretch of the season.

After the game, Nets coach Steve Nash talked about the challenges they faced while trying to defend Kevin Durant's former MVP-caliber teammate in Curry.

“We got a lot of work to do,” said the second-year head coach and Hall of Fame point guard. “We're trying to improve as a group, get better, hopefully we can find a way to overcome some of our deficiencies by the end of the year. I think the guys have been great as far as buying into what we want to do defensively, no one would have picked us as a top-10 defense to start the year. We're defending, we're finding a way.”

Indeed, the Nets are a top-10 defense, per NBA.com. They find themselves in a three-way tie for the ninth-rated defense with the Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics, all allowing 104.1 points per 100 possessions. Nash is right that that part is a bit of a surprise.

But the offense has lagged behind the defense. They have the 17th-rated offense, and that's a surprise as well.

“I think offensively we have all these different lineups,”  continued Nash. “Different backgrounds, styles of play, 10 new players on our team, it takes time.  We started the year with a continuity plan from last year that got thrown out the window obviously when Ky didn't come back, so we're trying to build and figure it out,” explained Nash.

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Nash is talking about how the team expected to have Kyrie Irving in their lineup. Learning the seven-time All-Star wouldn't be available for home games earlier in the offseason due to being unvaccinated (something that doesn't fly in New York City), the team made the tough decision to forbid the superstar guard from appearing in practices and road games as well.

But they have clearly had to scramble to come up with some new offensive sets on the fly in his absence, and that puts added pressure on Kevin Durant and James Harden.

Durant had 19 points on 6-for-19 shooting from the floor. That's well below his own standards (he came in averaging 29.6 points per game), and after the game he credited the Warriors' defense:

 

Durant knows championship basketball, and he knows it in Golden State specifically.

“That's a team that you look at, you take a lot from that as a team and understand that's the level that you want to get to,” praised Durant.

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As for Irving, there is no real update there. Nash said this prior to the game: “Kyrie, I stay in touch with Kyrie, but we don't really talk about basketball, just stay in touch and make sure everything is good with him.”

If Irving remains out of their lineup without a trade, they will have a long way to go to catch the Dubs in terms of execution. Steve Kerr's team looks like a well-oiled machine at times, and Klay Thompson is eyeing a return eventually as well.

 

The Nets are home again for the next one and will look to rebound against the surprisingly tough (9-6) Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.