The Nets dropped their third straight game on Monday night, finishing off a nightmare home stretch that ended with a 118-104 loss to Ja Morant and the Grizzlies.
It is the third straight game that the team has allowed at least 110 points, as the surprisingly strong defense that helped Brooklyn surge to the top of the Eastern Conference has now seemingly flatlined.
"I think just defense. Our defense hasn't been great, tonight was more so the finishing possessions with offensive rebounds, but our defense can't improve," head coach Steve Nash said.
While the Nets have hit a wall, the surging Bulls are riding an eight-game winning streak and now have a two game lead atop the Eastern Conference standings. The Nets will need to do more than just getting Kyrie Irving back, as they have been outmanned in the rebounding department of late, particularly on Monday night, when they were outrebounded 61-33 by a Memphis team that has now won five in a row.
Still, the Nets aren't concerned that the issues that have flared up of late are ones that could hang around.
"We can't panic," Nash said. "It's been a crazy period where 80 or 90 percent of our team got COVID…and it was a big stop to our momentum of the season. Let's not overreact, but that was embarrassing tonight. We got our butts kicked, and we have to do a lot better to get back to the standard that we played at before the interruption."
Much of the league has dealt with similar issues, but the Nets were hit hard with COVID cases to the point where three games were postponed. They won two in a row coming out of those postponements, but are now riding a three-game losing streak. But they still believe it is a skid that can turn into a winning streak in a hurry.
"It's definitely quick fix, we just have to go out there and just do it," James Harden said. "We've let teams come here and do what they want, get any shot that they want, and they're capitalizing."
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