In the first six games of the 2022–23 season, the Brooklyn Nets have lost five of them, and head coach Steve Nash described their most recent loss as “a disaster.”
On Saturday night, the Nets were defeated 125-116 by the Indiana Pacers. Brooklyn’s season-opening agony was increased by Tyrese Haliburton’s 26 points and Bennedict Mathurin’s 32 points for the Pacers, who also hit six three-pointers.
“It was a disaster,” Nash said, “How else do you say it? I didn’t see the will, didn’t see the desire, or the connectivity necessary to get stops and get rebounds…. We just got to make a bigger commitment and it’s got to mean more and we got to care more.”
After the defeat, the team reportedly held a players-only discussion, and the locker room was locked before the media was let in.
“It was a s—– night,” Kevin Durant added. “Excuse my language, it was a bad night…. We’re p—–. We enjoy basketball. We like to win, though, so of course when we lose the games it’s going to be a somber mood in the locker room. But it will change once we start playing some good basketball. We got a lot of basketball to be played ahead of us.”
The guys, according to Ben Simmons, had an “honest” discussion about their play.
“We’re in constant communication all the time,” Durant said. “If it’s a scheduled meeting or not, I think we all talk about what we need to do as a team every day. So regardless of if it was after a loss, or a meeting, we always have that. We’re always in constant dialogue about what we need to do as a group, so I wouldn’t say it was anything special.”
This season, Brooklyn has only been able to upset the Toronto Raptors despite having a star-studded team. They have lost four in a row since that time. During the team’s recent losing run, the defense surrendered 124.5 points per contest. This season, they have given up 122.8 points before games, which puts them just above the Detroit Pistons in the league’s rankings.
