Nets show flashes of what could have been in Game 3 victory
BROOKLYN — It wasn't supposed to be like this.
The Brooklyn Nets put together a trio of stars in the summer of 2012 ahead of their move from New Jersey. A backcourt featuring a pair of All Stars, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson, combined with center Brook Lopez to create a trio of stars, each of whom had been No. 1 options, and all three capable of winning playoff games for the Nets by themselves.
And yet, as Brooklyn entered Saturday's game trailing the Atlanta Hawks 2-0 in a best-of-seven series, playoff wins were anything but inevitable for the trio of Nets supposed to herald a new era.
And even after the Nets won 91-83 Saturday in a defense-heavy Game 3, a banged-up Deron Williams missed the fourth quarter and threw the trio formulation into question once again.
Even collectively, the Nets hadn't assumed the mantle of inevitability, sneaking into the playoffs as the eighth seed in the East on the final night of the regular season.
Nets coach Lionel Hollins said before the series began, "I don't think we have any advantage over the Hawks." Former Net Paul Pierce ripped the team, calling them "vets who didn't want to play and didn't want to practice." And neither Williams nor Johnson took public issue with what Pierce said, with only former Nets coach Jason Kidd offering any push-back whatsoever.
It's remarkable to consider just how close this all came to working, considering that the Nets have a total of one playoff series win in three years. The Nets had a Game 7 on their home floor back in 2013 against a decimated Chicago Bulls team. They played LeBron James' Miami Heat quite close in 2014, losing both Game 4 and 5 after leading late in the fourth quarter of both.
That Bulls series went to Chicago, though, with Johnson playing on a badly-injured leg and Williams seemingly choosing not to assert himself offensively in a winnable Game 7. And the series against Miami happened without Lopez, lost for the season to a foot injury. So far against Atlanta, Williams hasn't even been the most effective point guard on his own team, taking a back seat to Jarrett Jack and shooting 1-for-7 in a 96-91 Game 2 loss on Atlanta's floor, then 1-for-8 Saturday in Game 3.
Had the Nets stolen Game 2 in Atlanta, it could have changed the complexion of the series, and the season. Had Williams played effectively in Game 3, the Nets might have been able to avoid playing three starters more than 40 minutes apiece.
What's really caused the Nets to fall so far short of owner Mikhail Prokhorov's championship aspirations is how infrequently the three have played well at the same time. For periods over these three years, Williams resembled the Utah Jazz guard who pushed Nets GM Billy King to give up a king's ransom in players and draft picks to acquire him in 2011. At times, particularly late in games, Johnson has looked like the difference-maker Williams and the Nets imagined when they traded for him in 2012. And Lopez, particularly down the stretch this season, reminded everyone that when he's healthy, few if any NBA centers have as varied and effective offensive repertoires.
Their current coach, Lionel Hollins, didn't seem to have any magic bullet for getting all three to play well at once, offering no theories for why his team, which had finished with an 11-5 stretch to get into the playoffs, seemed to be fragmented once again, with the Hawks limiting Lopez to seven shots in Game 1, Johnson shooting 17-for-50 over the first three games, and Williams disappearing in Games 2 and 3.
Most astonishing to consider, when remembering the hopes of the All-Star backcourt, is Atlanta's defensive strategy to pack the lane and force the Nets to beat them from the perimeter. It's a plan that worked in Atlanta, but it's also a real-world comment on what the Nets aren't at this point.
"When you go back and look at the stretch that led to us making the playoffs, all three of them played well," Hollins said prior to Game 3. "There's a lot of people that've been added, a lot of people that have left, new coaches come in, different philosophies, different styles. They've had to adjust to it. So it's a lot of things. You can't just pinpoint one thing. And inconsistency of play has been troubling. But we got to a level of consistency for a while, and that's why we got into the playoffs."
When the game began, the outlines of the 2012 plan were plainly visible. Lopez controlled the boards with three rebounds in three minutes. Johnson sank a pull-up jumper. Williams hit a 3 that forced Atlanta into an early timeout, and the Nets led 10-2.
But that was Williams' only field goal in the game. Quickly enough, Williams lapsed into passivity, even dumping off the ball to Thaddeuas Young behind him on a 3-on-2 break midway through the first half despite a clear path to the hoop. The first two Nets to double figures weren't any of their Big Three, but instead Young and Bojan Bogdanovic.
All of which is why the Nets are unlikely to keep all three. Lopez can opt out of his current deal after the season, and after the kind of offensive season he put up, any number of teams will be lining up to pay him. If the Nets can find a taker, they'll happily deal Williams or Johnson to make room for Lopez, salary-wise, without a payroll that lands them in the luxury tax range for next season.
For now, however, they are Brooklyn's last, best shot at relevance with this current group. So the Nets kept on feeding Lopez, into the teeth of the Atlanta defense. Johnson kept shooting — say what you will about his consistency in Brooklyn, but Johnson's never shied away from taking the big shot. Hollins opened the fourth with both Lopez and Johnson, along with Young and Bogdanovic, his four double-figure scorers. And when Lopez drove along the baseline and scored a reverse layup over Al Horford to put Brookyn up by 14 early in the fourth, it was easy to close your eyes, hear the roar of the Barclays Center crowd and imagine what Prokhorov imagined, what King imagined, what Williams imagined when putting pen to paper.
But Williams didn't play in the fourth. No particular injury, though Williams is banged up — "normal stuff," as Williams described after the game.
"I was pretty sore, so I don't know how effective I could've been," Williams said when asked if he would have wanted to play in the fourth quarter. "And I think coach really saw that. Of course I want to be on the floor, but J-Jack was playing pretty well, and the guys did a good job closing it out."
But the Nets defended their home floor in large part thanks to a Hawks team that shot 35.6% percent from the field. The Nets can tie the series on Monday. The dream of the Big Three lives on, for now.
"Nothing lasts forever," Johnson said of the celebrated trio. "I think everybody in this locker room knows that. At some point in time, we're all gonna be gone or replaced. But while we're here, we're gonna make the most of it, have fun with it and enjoy it."
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