The Nets scored 128 points in Wednesday’s preseason finale and still lost by 16.
That’s a lot of buckets to waste.
Brooklyn finished 3-1 and averaged 124.3 points, with enough shooting and playmaking to give head coach Jordi Fernández options. The defense spent the last two games testing just how much of that production it could give back.
Fernández’s accounting at Friday’s practice was blunt: 10 good defensive quarters, six bad ones. Miami supplied four of the bad ones.
Early in the preseason, the Nets were a nuisance. They forced 46 turnovers and collected 26 steals while beating Charlotte 124-90 and Philadelphia 114-108. They also piled up 49 fast-break points. Pressure the ball, make somebody uncomfortable, get out and run. There was a team identity in there.
Then Brooklyn started making the other team a little too comfortable.
Washington scored 72 points before halftime in the Nets’ 131-122 victory. Brooklyn tightened up enough to allow 50 after the break, but Miami never encountered that second-half resistance. The Heat scored at least 32 points in every quarter and shot 58.5% from the field.
The rest of the damage was just as conspicuous: a 62-38 Miami advantage in the paint, a 50-37 edge on the glass and 20 fast-break points to Brooklyn’s six. Giannis Antetokounmpo put up 20 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists in fewer than 24 minutes.
Less than half a game’s work.
“We have to decide who we want to be,” Fernández said.
The Nets have already supplied evidence that they can be disruptive. Fernández is asking them to make a habit of it.
Day’Ron Sharpe said Brooklyn is largely running the same defense it used last season. Asking its centers to pressure the ball away from the basket is familiar territory. Rookie Mikel Brown Jr. pointed to positioning, timely help and the need to keep applying pressure for 48 minutes.
The details got expensive in a hurry.
“Coach always preaches to us, we can play hard, but we also got to play smart as well and have attention to detail,” Brown said. “So, I think that’s something that we’ve been a little inconsistent at, but we’re going to continue to work at it every single day and fix it.”
Brooklyn wants to run. It has guards who can push the ball, shooters who can fill the wings and a big playmaker in Julius Randle who can start the offense himself. That becomes a more appealing proposition when the possession begins with a stop instead of catching the ball out the net.
“A big emphasis is getting shots up in the first six seconds,” Michael Porter Jr. said. “So, if we can run the ball, find guys on the wings, shoot threes, get downhill, I think that’ll make us a tough team to guard.”
The appeal is easy to see. Brooklyn made 65 of 159 3-point attempts, shooting 40.9%, and averaged 27.8 assists. Porter averaged 21.7 points in three appearances while shooting 59% from the field and 47.6% from deep.
After a season spent adjusting to a larger offensive role, Porter believes he is better equipped for the attention that comes with it. Randle should make that job less lonely. He can score, draw defenders and find the open man, giving Brooklyn another way to create a good shot without asking its young guards to manufacture everything.
Randle averaged 14 points and 4.8 assists, including nine assists in fewer than 24 minutes against Washington.
“Julius will help create open looks for me,” Porter said. “I think I’ll be able to maintain the production, but more efficiently is my goal.”
The kids gave the offense some life, too. Nolan Traoré scored in double figures in all four games, averaging 12.8 points on 58.1% shooting. A team intent on getting a shot up in six seconds has an obvious use for his speed.
Egor Dëmin finished with 16 assists against six turnovers and shot 38.9% from 3-point range. After going 0-for-5 from deep against Washington, he made four 3-pointers and scored 17 points in Miami. Noah Clowney went 9-for-15 from three over the four games, while Moritz Wagner scored 13 and 15 points in the final two.
There are enough offensive pieces here to keep Fernández busy. Brown needed only 18 minutes to make the backcourt decisions more interesting. The rookie scored 15 points against Miami, shooting 4-of-7 and adding three assists and two steals. Fernández liked his creativity, confidence and energy on both ends.
Now comes building the conditioning and workload to sustain that impact.
Brown will remain on a minutes restriction when the regular season begins. A bench role would leave room for Brown to close.
“And as you’re building, coming off the bench, I still have the luxury to finish games with him if I need to,” Fernández said. “And that’s the type of team that we have here. We have a team that whoever’s playing well in that game will have a chance to finish and it will help us win the game.”
Fernández sees Brown fitting alongside Traoré, Dëmin or Ben Saraf. Brown agreed, describing the guards as interchangeable playmakers who can operate with or without the ball. That gives the coach room to experiment as Brown’s workload grows.
Joshua Jefferson’s situation offers less clarity. The rookie missed all four exhibitions because of back stiffness and has yet to fully rejoin the group. His return timetable remains uncertain.
“He’s not joined the group fully yet,” Fernández said. “He’s been part of the group, but he’s not ready to come back yet.”
Brooklyn will enter the regular season still sorting through availability and combinations. Fernández remains encouraged by the group’s chemistry, selflessness and willingness to own its mistakes. The next step is making that accountability visible when somebody is trying to get to the rim.
“I think that offensively is not a problem,” Porter said. “I think if we want to be good, then defensively we’ll have to lock in.”
The Nets have given themselves plenty of ways to score. Now Fernández needs them to make scoring a little less convenient for everybody else.
“Don’t rely on shot-making,” Fernández said. “Don’t rely on things that don’t really matter. Rely on the things that are going to make you a winning team.”