PHILADELPHIA — Nets, take a look: These are the opps.
James Harden left Brooklyn for Joel Embiid and the 76ers, an Atlantic Division rival the Nets will see four times every season. Harden has gone 5-0 since forcing his way to Philly in a trade deadline deal that included Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond.
The Nets have gone 4-8 since the deal and lost 18 of their last 24 games, with the Nets entering Thursday night with a 1-2 record since Kevin Durant’s injury return.
Not to mention they’ve tanked to the bottom of the Eastern Conference. They’re a team with a still-legitimate championship aspiration, but are jostling for a play-in tournament position with an anemic .500 record.
It feels like a mid-season hit job by a team the Nets are going to see four times every season, a reality that magnifies the details underscoring this CrockPot rivalry.
The Nets are in worse position now than before the trade, and even though they’re starting to get healthy, they have just 15 games to put it together before it’s win or go home.
Meanwhile the Sixers have buoyed up the standings to second in the East. They are the direct beneficiaries of the Nets’ downfall.
That makes them Public Enemy No. 1. And now the Harden-led Philly squad — a legitimized championship contender — will play the Nets up-close and personal in the first matchup between the two falling a month from the day of the blockbuster trade.
Bruce Brown said he’s thankful for what Harden did to help his game in a breakout season last year, but on Thursday night, he’s the enemy.
“Definitely,” Brown said. “I don’t want him to do well tonight.
“Honestly James made my season last year for sure. … So that’s my guy – but tonight…you know…”
And then comes the harsh reality: It’s not just Harden. It’s also Embiid, a front-runner for the league’s Most Valuable Player of the Year award.
The Nets are no different from the NBA’s other 28 teams who’ve each proved unsuccessful in slowing down the All-Star big man who’s averaging a league-leading 29.7 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists per game to go with perennial Defensive Player of the Year-level clamps.
Brooklyn’s best hope has just been upgraded from the veteran and former All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge to Drummond, who was Embiid’s backup in Philly before the deal. Drummond didn’t have any cheat codes on how to slow his former teammate down.
“You can’t stop a guy like that and hold them out an entire game,” Drummond said at shootaround on Thursday. “He’s going to score; he’s going to find ways to be effective during the game. It’s just being okay with some of the shots he takes, and just playing it the best you can.”
And what are the shots the Nets don’t want Embiid to take?
“Layups!” Drummond said in disbelief. “Layups! We don’t want him taking layups, as many jump shots as possible.”
So the Nets want to keep Embiid out of the paint, without any real answers on how to do so. That was already the case before Harden arrived in Philly, opening up the offense for Embiid and taking a large scoring load off his shoulders.
“Incredible talent between those two,” Nash said. “So we’ll have our hands full. We’ll have to compete, play extremely hard and play with a lot of spirit.”
It’s an impossible situation, as evidenced by the Sixers’ 5-0 record in games Harden and Embiid have played together. Meanwhile the Nets find themselves at Square 1 in the final leg of the season.
They are still seeking chemistry and cohesion, still adjusting to new faces on the roster, including one name that hasn’t touched the floor yet.
And that’s why the Sixers are the opps, because “opp” is short for opposition. They have reaped their benefits at Brooklyn’s expense.
Now the Sixers are legitimate title contenders, while the Nets’ odds have been muddied by a number of circumstances in a disastrous season.
Which could be a reminder the Nets receive four times each season plus the playoffs for the foreseeable future.
()
