In the history of the NBA postseason, there've been 435 total series in which a team has taken a commanding 2-0 lead. And of those series, only 31 teams (7-percent) have recovered from the intimidating deficit and advanced to the next round. Based on the numbers, the championship-or-bust Brooklyn Nets, now two losses away from a first-round exit, aren't in a comfortable position.
When the team welcomes in the rival Boston Celtics for Game 3 this weekend at Barclays Center, they'll need to be efficient from the opening tipoff until the final buzzer. In Game 2 on Wednesday, they simply crumbled during the fourth quarter, as they scored just 17 points and allowed a costly 23-4 run. Nets stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving also struggled mightily, combining to shoot 8-of-30 from the floor. Brooklyn is now in a deep hole, and how much blame does second-year head coach Steve Nash deserve for the recent issues?
"If you're on a train and the back car catches on fire and is lighting the whole train on fire, do you blame it on the conductor, who's all the way in the front?" Andrew Perloff said during Maggie and Perloff on Friday. "This isn't on Nash... He's getting out-coached, big-time. What are you going to build? He's got to deal with Kyrie Irving coming in and out. Kevin Durant has four guys on him, because everyone on your roster can't step up in the playoffs..."
"He's not Gregg Popovich, we know that -- this isn't some maestro of the X's and O's," Maggie Gray said. "It's also his second season as a head coach and think about all of the crap he's had to deal with. Kyrie in and out, Harden here and then gone... And the Ben Simmons stuff, who knows how to deal with it, the right way to deal with it. Of course you have no cohesion. He's relying on his superstars to figure it out... It's got to be on those two guys."
Game 3 between the Nets and Celtics is scheduled for Saturday in Brooklyn, with tipoff at 7:30 p.m. ET. According to FiveThirtyEight projections, the Nets currently have a miniscule 6-percent chance to win the series, and less than a 1-percent chance to win the NBA Finals. Before the regular season started, the Nets were given a 14-percent chance to reach their first NBA Finals since 2003, and a 7-percent chance to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy.
Maggie and Perloff's complete thoughts on the Nets and NBA playoffs can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the Maggie and Perloff Show on Twitter @MaggieandPerl and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.