Getty Kyrie Irving #11 of the Brooklyn Nets reacts with Nic Claxton #33 during the second half against the Atlanta Hawks
Things are beginning to look bleak in Brooklyn after the Nets dropped their third straight game following a 98-106 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on January 17. Although the Nets did win their game against the Miami Heat on January 9 when superstar Kevin Durant got injured at the end of the third quarter, they have not gotten in the win column since then. It is an eerily similar feeling to when the Nets plummeted to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings via an 11-game losing streak when Durant went down with an MCL injury last season.
But despite the similarities, Nets rising center Nicolas Claxton says that Durant being out with an injury this season is different from last year for one specific reason.
“It was kind of a toxic environment. We didn’t know if everybody wanted to be here at the time,” Claxton said after the game via the New York Post.
“This year there’s no divide between everybody that’s out there. We’re going to figure it out. We’ve just got to figure out how to play with each other without having KD, Kyrie [Irving] out there on the court. It’s different lineups. But we’ll figure it out.”
Claxton’s comments seem to be an apparent reference to former Nets star James Harden who demanded a trade at last year’s deadline. He got traded to the Philadelphia 76ers on February 10.
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Kyrie Irving Comparisons to Kevin Durant’s 2022 Injury
Harden may have had one foot out of the door at last year’s trade deadline. But that wasn’t the sole reason the Nets tumbled down the Eastern Conference standings during Durant’s absence in 2022. Irving, who was unvaccinated for COVID-19, was only able to play road games for the majority of last season, because the vaccine was required for him to play home games at Barclays Center under the New York City mandate.
Irving believes it was another factor in the Nets’ downfall last season, in addition to certain players being “halfway in the locker room”.
“I’m consistently in the lineup: That helps. We also don’t have halfway-in anyone in the locker room and there’s a primary focus on the big picture here,” Irving said on January 15 via the New York Post.
“It was all glory-glory last week when we were winning games every game, and now we’re answering questions about potentially struggling. I don’t think we are going to struggle without Kevin now. That’s not my belief. I know guys in the locker room don’t believe that. This isn’t last year at all. So, the comparisons have got to stop.”
Jacque Vaughn Calls Out Nets’ Effort
Despite all of the factors surrounding the Nets amid this losing streak, head coach Jacque Vaughn won’t allow his team to make excuses. While he acknowledges the Nets need a fully healthy roster to compete, Vaughn also knows there are things his available players can improve on to give the Nets a better chance of winning.
“Well, you know we need everybody, and that’s a big piece of it. So, we have to be disciplined and smart in how we play the game. And a big piece of that is — I talked about that before the game — the rebounding and the fouling. We have to take care of it,” Vaughn said via the New York Post.
“And it is in multiple fashions. Whether it’s the rebounding piece, whether it’s reaching on the guy who drives, whether it is being not positioned and then having to react. So, all culprits of it. And hopefully, guys are starting to understand the discipline along the way, it has to be there because you won’t be able to recover from stretches like that. And so, great challenge for a group.”
The Nets can break their losing streak with a win over the Phoenix Suns on January 19.