A loss is a loss and a losing road trip is a losing road trip, right?
Well, sort of. The Nets went 1-3 on the road but came home feeling lousy about the record but good about themselves.
The Nets went West with tons of hope and positive expectations. Even coach Byron Scott cautioned that a 1-3 trip was “a remote possibility.” These Nets were gunning for 3-1. Bless their youthful optimism around the holidays (they also want lots of toys from Santa).
They were prepared to accept 2-2. Their outlook grew rosier when they knocked off the Clippers to start the four-game trip. That says something about the Nets’ past when a win over the Clippers is a big deal.
Then they rode smack into the belly of the Western beast, running into Phoenix, Utah and Portland, a lineup to test the resolve and talent of the strongest teams. The Nets came away from that meat grinder with three defeats plus a slew of lessons about themselves. They pulled a tank job in Phoenix, played hard and well but were overmatched by superior talent in Utah then, despite more hard and spirited play, couldn’t take advantage of every opportunity the Blazers laid before them, including two shots (literally) to tie in the final :40 but attempts by Stephon Marbury and Kendall Gill failed.
“I’m not devastated but I’m not extremely happy about it,” Scott assessed of the trip that ended with 12-point defeats in Phoenix and Utah and a two-point setback in Portland. “I was pleased with the effort. The guys played pretty hard. That’s all I ask my guys to do is to play hard every night.”
At some point, talent must intervene. With Keith Van Horn and Jamie Feick still out – along with Kerry Kittles who they never really counted on for this season – the Nets’ depth is wafer thin. Witness how opposing benches feasted, particularly in Phoenix and Utah, on Nets subs outscoring the bunch, 143-89 during the trip.
For the Nets of old, a 1-3 trip wasn’t necessarily thought of negatively. Hey, sometimes it made folks downright giddy. Not now. So rather than getting warm and mushy feelings about batting .250, despite the opposition, the Nets want to quell the ‘moral victory’ attitude.
“It’s real easy for teams to slip into that ‘moral victory’ mode and you can’t do that because it falls real close to self pity as far as I’m concerned,” assessed center Evan Eschmeyer, “and this team won’t do that. We have too much respect for ourselves.”
So while there was cause for optimism on one hand, reality says the Nets limped home under .500 (6-7) with the Jazz right back on the menu tomorrow night in the Meadowlands. “We can’t worry about the record. We have to keep playing the kind of basketball we’re playing,” rookie Kenyon Martin stressed.
And regardless of three losses in four, the Nets know they’re still better off than last year.