One of the most beautiful things about sports is that on any given day, any team can beat another. Regardless of how lopsided the odds may be or how much better one squad is on paper. The Nets are learning that the hard way.
At least, we can surmise this much from the following sound bite Markieff Morris gave reporters on Monday:
Markieff Morris on the key to beating the #Pacers: “Just got to play a little bit harder, respect our opponents. I think that we just felt like we could show up and beat them.” #nets
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) October 31, 2022
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Brooklyn dropped its season opener to the New Orleans Pelicans, but then pulled back to .500 with a victory over the Toronto Raptors in its second game of the season. Since then, the Nets have lost four straight to drop to 1-5 on the year. It’s early, but nobody with playoffs and/or championship aspirations wants to be 14th in the Eastern Conference right now.
They couldn’t break this losing streak on Saturday night at home, either. Against an Indiana Pacers team that’s not supposed to be very good, Brooklyn lost 125-116. Based on what Morris said, it seems like the Nets didn’t take this game seriously. That’s odd, considering they had already underwhelmed through their first five games, but such is life, I suppose.
Morris was signed by the Nets to be a veteran presence the organization felt like it lacked heading into the regular season. Heck, it seems like team owner Joe Tsai recruited Morris to the Nets himself. This could be one of those moments where Brooklyn is hoping that acquisition pays off.
This is just the latest in a string of unfortunate events for the Nets over the last couple of days. They also held a players-only meeting after this particular loss. Head coach Steve Nash didn’t mince words after dropping what was viewed as a winnable game to Indiana:
Steve Nash: “That was a disaster. I didn’t see the will, didn’t see the desire.” #Nets
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) October 30, 2022
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He didn’t stop there, either:
Steve Nash: “We’ve got to look deep, deep inside ourselves and what we want to do, what we want to accomplish? Do we want to give up on this because it’s been difficult early, or do we want to stay the course and start to build something?” #Nets
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) October 30, 2022
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There’s obviously still plenty of season left to turn this around. But as the late, great Yogi Berra once said, “It’s getting late early.” Brooklyn does need some time to learn how to play as a unit, but one thing that should be a given is the effort getting put into playing the best basketball possible.
They’ll get another chance to right these wrongs against the Pacers at home Monday at 7:30 pm ET.
Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
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