It has been more than a month since the Nets were not on a streak of some kind.
Now the challenge is making sure they don’t start a new one.
After having their NBA-best seven-game winning streak — which followed an eight-game losing streak — snapped Friday night against the Pacers, the Nets will try to buck the trend and avoid an emotional hangover Sunday when the Suns visit Barclays Center.
“I think not resting on our laurels,” coach Kenny Atkinson said Saturday after practice. “I think it starts with [Sunday], how we’re going to approach that game, how we’re going to bounce back from this. It is a little bit of a different situation. You had the winning streak, now you have a tough loss against a good team. We had a chance. I want to see how prepared we are physically and mentally tomorrow.”
The last time the Nets were not in the middle of a streak was Nov. 20, when they beat the Heat to win for the second time in three games. The next night, their eight-game losing streak began.
The winning streak that followed helped right the ship as the Nets made an emphasis on improving their defensive rebounding and getting stops. But it also got the Nets believing in themselves again, which they hope to tap into again Sunday.
“I don’t care what you do as a professional, confidence is crucial,” veteran forward Jared Dudley said. “I think that, when we were losing, there were times where it was, ‘Oh, here we go again.’ Now, it works in our favor. ‘Hey, we can win this game.’ So, yes, confidence definitely helps like that. Winning shows the belief and it shows that, when you listen to the coaching staff and you buy in, it might be someone new every night, including myself.”
Atkinson was frustrated with Friday’s result, calling it tougher than some of the losses late in their losing streak. The Nets had dug themselves an early hole before taking a 103-100 lead with three minutes left, only to squander it away. The final stretch included Atkinson getting ejected after picking up two technical fouls while arguing the officiating.
Still, Atkinson came in Saturday morning and said most of the clips he showed during the team’s film session were positive.
“The NBA, there’s uphill battles, there’s downhill battles,” DeMarre Carroll said. “So people got swings. You just don’t want them for a long period of time. Unfortunately we’ve been on both ends of the spectrum. It just shows our resiliency as a group and how we’re getting better. We lost [Friday] but hopefully that’s just one loss and we can get back on a streak. I think we’re growing, we’re getting better. Guys are stepping in and guys are growing right before your eyes.”
Dudley was encouraged by the way the Nets responded mentally to the winning streak, and is hoping that even-keeled nature can help them bounce back Sunday from their latest loss.
“Once we started winning, it wasn’t like we were too excited,” Dudley said. “It was on to the next one. It wasn’t like [Friday] night we lose and everyone is down. No, on to the next one. That shows you a team that is now thinking more of a winning mentality [and] going to win the game than trying to lose.”